A Prophecy Undone
by M.N.Moore
Summary: Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone: Prophecies have a way of coming to pass, though not always as they are expected to. A young girl finds herself in a strange new world, a heroine to many...but can she live up to their lofty expectations?
1. The Girl Who Lived

**A Prophecy Undone: Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone  
**

**Author's Note: **It has been a while since I wrote fanfiction regularly…partly because I find it harder to be inspired to write new stories, when I'm usually a person who likes sticking close to canon. So when I had the idea to write an AU fic casting Luna as 'The Chosen One' it was too fun an opportunity to pass up. I hope you like it!

*A special note for this chapter—I intended for this to be an almost direct translation of the first chapter from Sorcerer's Stone. The entire story isn't going to be written this way, it's just a way of contrasting one story with another.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter One: The Girl Who Lived**

Mrs. Beatrice Fry, of number twelve, Lake Street, was a perfectly normal sort of woman. She wasn't the sort that anybody would expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious. The fact that she was, and knew a great deal more about strange and mysterious things than any of her neighbors could imagine, was something she had learned to keep quiet over a great many years.

Mr. Fry was a smallish sort of man, who might once have been rosy but had turned pale and gray after far too many years of being stuck in a small office. He did something with computers—only he really knew what, for sure. He had thin brown hair and nervous disposition, which made him seem rather mousy overall. Mrs. Fry might once have been very pretty, but her white-blonde hair had faded to yellow at some point in her life, and she had grown a little stout over the years. The Frys had a little boy named Kevin and in their opinion there had never been a more delicate child anywhere.

The Frys had everything they wanted, for the most part. But they also had a secret, because Mrs. Fry had once been denied something that she wanted very much. She didn't think she could bear it if anybody ever found out about her lovely younger sister. It had been hard enough growing up with her and watching the way she charmed anybody she met. Aurelia Lovegood lived a life that was as different from Mrs. Fry's as it was possible. The Frys knew that Aurelia had just had a little girl, too (and what of the boy's father? Mrs. Fry didn't even _want _to know). This was another reason Mrs. Fry tried her hardest to keep her sister away—she didn't want _her _delicate little boy getting mixed up in such harmful ideas.

When Mr. and Mrs. Fry woke up on the bright, sunny Wednesday our story starts, there was nothing about the clear blue sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Fry stood in the closet debating for a solid fifteen minutes over what he should wear for the big meeting with his boss that day, and Mrs. Fry picked through her copy of Caring for Infant Children, searching for whatever ailment had young Kevin screaming his face bright red in his high chair.

None of them noticed a small, brown owl flutter past the window.

At ten to eight, Mr. Fry picked up his briefcase, nodded at his wife and patted Kevin on the head, causing Mrs. Fry to chastise him for being too rowdy with the boy. "Poor thing," he said, secretly relieved to be leaving the house. He got into the car and backed out of number twelve's drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar—a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Fry didn't realize what he had seen—then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Lake Street, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? Feeling his head swimming, he wondered for a moment if he shouldn't turn right back around and head home. But then again, if he was really sick he didn't want to risk giving something to the baby. He blinked, shaking his head, and forced himself not to look in the mirror to watch the cat as he drove away. The last thing he needed was some delusion in his head of a cat reading maps and staring at road signs. As he drove into town he was able to settle firmly back onto thinking of the meeting he would be having with his boss that day.

But on the edge of town he began to wonder if it was a delusion or something else entirely. He couldn't help but notice a large number of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Though he didn't usually mind people who went around looking peculiar—to each their own, even though those sorts of people made him nervous—he was reminded of his wife's old crowd. He didn't know much about them, of course, but it seemed just the sort of thing that people like her sister would be involved in.

If his office had had windows, he might have found himself increasingly more distracted as the day went on. He didn't see the owls that swooped past in broad daylight, though people in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never even seen an owl even at nighttime. But Mr. Fry had a normal, owl-free morning. He filled out several forms, answered a couple of phone calls, and sailed through the meeting with his boss without too much difficulty.

He'd almost forgotten about the strange events when he got out to grab lunch at the local café. There were more people in cloaks standing around. He felt even more uneasy than usual, and from where he stood he could hear them whispering excitedly among themselves. As much as he was certain he didn't want to hear what they were saying he feigned dropping a handful of change, so he could listen to them as he bent to pick it up.

"Aurelia Lovegood, that's right, that's what I heard—"

"—yes, her little girl, Luna I think her name was—"

Mr. Fry stopped dead. He was almost shaking. He looked at the whisperers, wishing he could say something to them, but thought better of it.

He walked back to his building, feeling as if he were about to faint as he made his way back up to his office. Ignoring the memos that had mysteriously appeared in his inbox since he left, he grabbed the telephone and dialed his home number.

"Hello? Hello?" Mrs. Fry's voice came at him over the line.

"Dear? It's me. It's Henry. Er…how's Kevin?"

He listened to her describe every cough, change in temperature, and so on for five minutes, hemming and agreeing with her when necessary. It wasn't until she paused for breath that he interjected.

"There have been a lot of strange things happening today, dear. I…ah, I thought I heard your sister's name when I was out walking on the street. Just wondering if you might have heard anything about her lately."

"My sister?" said Mrs. Fry incredulously. "I…she…no, I haven't heard anything about her."

"Hmm…well, I suppose it was my imagination then. Funny thing, people in robes and owls flying around all over the place. I was just wondering if it might have been her crowd."

"Well, I don't know anything about _her _crowd," snapped Mrs. Fry. "Oh, would you listen to that! Kevin's crying again, I better let you go."

He heard the click of the phone followed by a dial tone. He should have figured not to bring it up to his sister—talk of her sister always made her so angry. He didn't know much about her past other than that she was a…a something or other, and that Beatrice should have been but wasn't. She'd told him the name once…was it a Squabble, or a Squid…? No, that couldn't be right.

When he pulled up into his driveway the first thing he saw was the tabby cat he'd seen earlier. He wanted to bring it up to his wife but thought better of it, and so kept the subject on Kevin, and doctors, and baby food once he walked in the door.

Mrs. Fry had felt herself growing more and more agitated since her husband's phone call that morning. It didn't help that every channel was making reports on the 'odd occurrences' that seemed to be taking place all over the nation.

She had finally gotten Kevin settled down to sleep and sank into her favorite chair with a sigh. "I tried calling Aurelia," she said. Mr. Fry said nothing, waiting for her to speak again. It took several minutes but she finally did. "When I heard the four o'clock report I decided to try. She kept a phone, you know, just so I could get in touch if I needed her. Of course, none of her sort use…I mean…oh well, you know."

"So…is she well?" said Mr. Fry tentatively.

"Never could get in touch with her. I suppose that's best," said Mrs. Fry. "Means she's given up on me I suppose. After all, what use does a woman like her have with a…with a…"

She never finished her sentence, and after that didn't seem inclined to talk. They went to bed without saying another word on the subject, and Mr. Fry couldn't even bring himself to take one more look outside to see if that cat was still there. As he lay in bed, he turned things over in his head. Although he knew about his wife's past, and their…eccentricities, he didn't really think it was something he had to worry about.

Not that there was anything wrong with people like that…it was their life to live, after all. But he couldn't help but feel there was something inherently dangerous about a life like that. He was grateful that his wife had managed to get out of all of that nonsense. And though he was sure that Aurelia was probably a perfectly nice woman, little Kevin was already so delicate—he couldn't imagine the poor boy being able to withstand having those kind of people mucking about. His last thoughts as he drifted off to sleep were that he was worrying over nothing—after all, there was no way that those kind of people would be able to interfere in his life.

How very wrong he was.

Mr. Fry might have been able to coax himself into sleep, but the cat outside was still as alert as it had been that morning. It was prowling through the Frys weedy garden, stopping every so often underneath a rose bush to look out at the street as if waiting for something.

As the time approached midnight, a man appeared on the corner across from the garden that the cat was prowling, so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he just popped out of the ground.

This was exactly the sort of man that the people who lived on Lake Street probably thought of as dangerous. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He wore long robes, a shimmery blue cloak that swept the ground, and silver slippers with the sort of curled toes that appeared in storybooks about elves and goblins. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he could probably be considered the most dangerous thing on Lake Street. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the bottom of the rose bush. For seem reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."

The street was fairly dark. He toyed with the small silver object that he pulled out of his cloak for only a moment before putting it back, muttering, "No use, dark enough out here already." He crossed the road, coming to stand beside the cat in the Frys garden.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, a scarlet one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat move so stiffly."

"You'd be stiff if you'd been confined to this miniscule yard all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? Why, I myself spent an hour at the Potters, and I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here.

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no—even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She gestured towards a neighbor's house, where she'd patiently listened to the last two broadcasts. "Flocks of owls…shooting stars…well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. A flying motorcycle over London…you know that had to have been Sirius Black. That boy was reckless enough in school…"

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for twelve years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors. If that one in there wasn't married to a Squib, what might he have thought? A fine thing it would be if on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really _has _gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a Cherry Sour?"

"A what?"

"A cherry sour. They're a kind of Muggle sweet. I'm not as fond of them as I am of lemon drops, but they'll do in a pinch."

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for muggle candy. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone—"

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this You-Know-Who nonsense—for twelve years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: _Voldemort." _Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two candies, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who'. I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."

"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half-admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know—oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too—well—noble to use them."

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Alice Longbottom said I was almost as handsome as Frank when I was that age."

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting in a mossy, unkempt garden all day, for neither as a cat nor a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever 'everyone' was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another cherry sour and did no answer.

"What they're _saying,"_ she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up at the at Aurelia Lovegood's house. That…that she was killed."

Dumbledore nodded gravely and Professor McGonagall sighed, shaking her head sadly.

"Aurelia…I only just got a chance to know her, but she was trying to help in her own way. She was a lovely, Albus. Simply lovely."

Dumbledore nodded. "Intelligent. I wish sometimes that I had let her join our efforts sooner. She seemed so reserved, I wasn't sure of her intentions…not until now."

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill Aurelia's daughter, Luna. But—he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little girl. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Luna Lovegood, Voldemort's power somehow broke—and that's why he's gone."

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "I do not now how, or why. There were others of course…you know that both the Potters and the Longbottoms have been in hiding for over a year."

"Yes. We have all heard the rumors that Voldemort was hunting them," said McGonagall. "Could this have happened with any child?"

He was shaking his head even before she finished her statement. "Again, I cannot tell. But I think that it would take a great deal of love to destroy so great a hate. Even I did not know that Aurelia Lovegood was capable of such a love." Dumbledore glanced down at a golden watch that he pulled from pocket. It was very old, the face swirling with strange symbols. It must have made sense to Dumbledore though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "I suppose you intend to leave her here?" she said disapprovingly. "The man doesn't seem too bad, but I don't know about the squib."

"She will be safe here, that it was is important. I have written her a letter, to be shared with her when she is older. I trust that her aunt will know what to do with her. She spent a great part of her life around magic before she decided to live among the muggles."

McGonagall was silent. "Before…before all this, I might have argued against it. This past year…oh, Dumbledore, this girl will be famous. A legend! There will be books written about Luna—every child in this world will know her name."

"That is true, and part of the reason I find it necessary she have a chance to grow here, away from it all. She must be ready for it, when her time comes."

The pair was silent for a long moment, until the night was punctuated by the sputtering of an old car. McGonagall looked up the street, then down it, and it wasn't until she noticed Dumbledore staring straight up into the air that she followed his gaze. A bright blue car was descending from high up in the air, coming to a stop in the driveway of number twelve.

The man that got out of the car seemed far too big to fit in such a small space. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man, and at least five times as wide. He looked too big to allowed, and so wild—long tangles of bushy black hair and beard his most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. One eye was covered with a thick leather patch that was almost the size of a saucer, and the dangerousness of his look was amplified by a series of scars that covered half of his face.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get the vehicle?"

"Arthur Weasley, keeps all sorts of gadgets in that barn of his. I've got her, sir."

"No problems?"

"No sir. House was almost destroyed, but Arthur heard the ruckus and had her fished out before any harm could come to her. Found her all nice and snug in the crib with Molly Weasley's youngest…finally had a little girl, had you heard that?"

"Bet she's thanking her stars for that," said McGonagall under her breath. The other continued on as if they hadn't heard her, and she joined them in bending forward over a bundle of knitted blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby girl, fast asleep. Under wispy white curls, they could see a crescent shaped cut, in just the shape of the moon that currently illuminated the sky.

"Is that where—" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," said Dumbledore, "She'll have that scar forever."

"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well—give him here, Hagrid—we'd better get this over with."

Dumbledore took Luna in his arms and turned towards the Frys house.

Hagrid watched as he sat the baby on the step, sniffing. "Mrs. Lovegood weren't never that nice to me, but it ain't right to see a l'il girl without her mum or dad." He wiped the tears away from his eyes, as Professor McGonagall gingerly patted him on the arm.

For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook as he began to sob, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.

"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations. I believe the Potters plan to celebrate their first night out since going into hiding with a row down at the Three Broomsticks, if you care to join me."

"I migh', Professor," said Hagrid. "I gotta take this ol' heap back to Arthur Weasley. Maybe I'll see yer around."

He got into the car and the motor roared to life—it was a wonder it didn't wake the entire neighborhood. He flew upwards, disappearing at about twenty feet in the air. Dumbledore and McGonagall listened as the sound faded away.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. She nodded in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked down the street. He paused in the middle of the darkness, frowning. Withdrawing a wand from his robes, he flicked it, causing a dozen or so trees to change into lampposts, casting the street in a luminescent glow. "Much better," he said to himself, turning so that he could see the small bundle laying on the Frys step. "Good luck, Luna," he murmured. Then turning on his heel and swishing his cloak, he was gone.

The night was still over Lake Street. It was a nice and tidy street, now lined with lampposts, which was one of several astonishing things that had happened there that day. Luna Lovegood woke up briefly without crying, blinking large blue eyes as she stared in wonder at the world around her. Then they closed again and she slept on, not knowing she was special, not knowing she was famous, and not knowing the way her life might have been had but a few things happened differently…not knowing she would be woken by her uncle stumbling over her as he made his way to work or that she would spend the next few weeks being kept in a room by herself because her crying was upsetting her cousin Kevin…She couldn't know that at this moment people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Luna Lovegood—the girl who lived!"


	2. The Fortune and the Snake

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **This was a hard chapter for me to write. I don't want to get away from the plot of Sorcerer's Stone too quickly, but I don't want each chapter to be a carbon copy of the book. I tried my best to mirror certain events, scenes, thoughts, etc. of Harry's with Luna's here, and I hope I succeeded.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Two: The Fortune and the Snake  
**

Nearly ten years had passed since the Frys woke up to find their niece on the front step. The little house on Lake Street was a distant memory, long since passed on to a new family who would tend the tidy lawn and gossip with the nosy neighbors. Now the rising sun glinted through windows that overlooked busy streets. Inside their cramped flat, everything they owned was stacked into piles so that the residents had room to move. The few remnants of their old life were unsentimentally pushed into dusty corners. In all of this a brief picture was painted of those who lived within.

Traces of Mr. Fry were present in the briefcase that sat off to one side, dusty now with disuse. A handful of pill bottles were lined up in the kitchen, all bearing his name.

Mrs. Fry's knitting projects had long since been packed away. A silver name tag sat next to her handbag, and her neatly folded work uniform sat atop a nearby chair.

In various places around the room were the schoolbooks, comics, and action figures that marked the presence of a twelve year old boy. A picture on the mantle showed Kevin to be a pale, thin sort who didn't seem to be that comfortable in his own skin. The only thing that didn't seem to belong was a portrait of a young girl with straggly, waist-length blonde hair and wide blue eyes.

Though she didn't look as if she belonged, Luna Lovegood was there, at the moment wide awake in her cramped room sketching in her journal. The flat was still quiet, though not for long. She was almost finished with her drawing—a bright blue car that she had decided needed wings, and had adorned appropriately—when she heard the door to her aunt and uncle's bedroom creak open.

A full minute later there was a sharp rapping at her door. "Luna? Are you awake?"

"Yes, Aunt Beatrice."

"Come on out and get breakfast ready for your Uncle Henry. I have to be at work in a half hour."

Reluctantly, Luna slid her journal back into its drawer and got out of bed. She hastily changed out of her pajamas, brushing back her hair without a second glance in the mirror on her closet door. When she opened her door, she saw her aunt standing at the stove with a mug of coffee. She glanced up at Luna as if trying for a moment to remember who she was.

"The rent is due today," she said wearily.

"Already?" Luna crossed to the cupboard, taking out a box of pancake mix.

"You know very well it is," Aunt Beatrice snapped. "Your Uncle is far too ill to go out today and says he has homework. You're going to have to pick it up from me at the diner and bring it back before four."

Luna thought about this as she whisked the batter. "I have homework too," she said after a moment.

"You know very well it's more important that Kevin work on his. You can do yours tonight, it shouldn't take you long."

Knowing very well that Kevin would probably spend all day working on the next level of Black Dungeon (the latest game for his Gamestation), Luna bit her tongue. She couldn't say that she had mistreated for the past ten years of her life—indeed, she had at times been very happy, though that was before Uncle Henry had to quit his job and force them to move into the little flat. But she always got the feeling that her aunt didn't seem to think anything she was doing was very important.

If she made an A on a test, for example, nobody ever said a word (except for perhaps her uncle, who sometimes said that Luna was too smart for her own good). But the other day when Kevin had walked in with a B he was treated with special regard. Never mind that he had _only _gotten that grade because the test was the week after his old game system broke down and before he was able to convince his mother to buy him a new one.

She heard the slam of the door as her aunt left the flat. She let out the little sigh she had been holding in and poured little circles in the batter on the griddle. When the little cakes were made she divided them into two portions—Kevin never ate anything that she had cooked. Fixing them the way she knew her uncle liked them, she took them to his bed.

He smiled when he saw her. "You didn't have to," he rasped.

"Aunt Beatrice said I did," Luna said, setting the plate down in front of him as he sat up.

"You don't always have to do what Aunt Beatrice says," he said confidentially.

"I don't have to. I don't even have to breathe, if I don't really want to. But it makes things easier."

Uncle Henry chuckled. "I suppose that's right," he said, taking a bite. "Good as always, my dear," he said.

Luna smiled again, kissing him on the cheek before leaving the room.

It was hard to believe sometimes, Luna thought, that her Aunt Beatrice was her blood relation and not her Uncle Henry. She only really believed it because she could sometimes see herself in her aunt.

People sometimes said when they saw Luna that she was an 'unusually pretty' girl. She didn't know what that meant, unless it was referring to the fact that she was perhaps thinner than she ought to be, and taller, but that didn't really make her look bad at all. Sometimes Luna thought people meant the crescent-shaped scar on her forehead, which she rather liked, though it had been a mystery to her for her entire life.

She remembered asking when she was young where it had come from. Neither her aunt nor her uncle seemed to know, saying that she had already had it when she came to live with them. She wasn't sure if she believed it, but as it seemed her aunt didn't want to tell her she figured she would try and find out when she was old enough.

She was at the table finishing her own breakfast when she heard Kevin moving about in his room. He popped his head out, glancing around before fixing his gaze on Luna. "Mum gone?" he asked.

Luna nodded and he retreated back to his room. Sure enough, the sounds of his video game came muffled through the door after a few minutes. Luna rolled her eyes, cleaned up the kitchen, retrieved the plate from Uncle Henry, and finally settled down in the living room to work on her homework before she had to go out.

Though only ten years old, Luna had gone by herself into the city a number of times. Her aunt never seemed to worry—her uncle did—but an uncanny sense of direction and a strange fearlessness had always seemed to keep her out of trouble.

It was very rare that the Frys ever got out to—that had been the case even before the worst happened—and on any other day she would have been thrilled for a journey out into London. But as she peeked out and saw the heavy storm clouds looming she wished for a moment that Kevin weren't so lazy—not that she didn't enjoy a good thunderstorm, but the last thing she wanted was to get sick right before the end of term.

"I'm leaving, Uncle Henry!" she called as she pulled on her tattered raincoat. It was much too large for her, having once belonged to her aunt.

He didn't say anything in reply—she supposed he had fallen back asleep.

She left the flat as quietly as she could. Outside, the rain had yet to start. Everything was cast in a dismal, gray light—the people that she passed on the sidewalk were rushing as quickly as possible to get out of the coming onslaught.

Luna's pace was slower. As she usually did she found herself taking the longer route, heading for her favorite spots. She stopped at a pond, where a few ducks still floated on top of the choppy waves. She pulled a bread crust from her pocket and threw it to them, watching them peck furiously at the crumbs until they were all gone.

She stopped by the quaint little tea shop she had found a year or so earlier, where the elderly patroness offered her a cup of hot chocolate and a piece of toast spread with marmalade. Then she made her way a few blocks over where massive windows let her watch dancers spinning and dancing in their studio.

Three blocks north she sat for a while listening to a street musician with purple hair, who smiled at her as if he knew her. Half a block away from him a street artist was hurriedly trying to finish his chalk drawing of a famous painting, glaring at the sky as if it would help keep the rain away for just a little longer, until he'd finished.

But it was just east of that that Luna found herself unable to go any further, the street she usually took blocked off by a broken water main that was gushing at least ten feet in the air. She watched it for a moment, before stopping a police officer as he pushed past her.

"Sir? Can you tell me how to get to Yum's Diner from here?"

The disinterested officer pointed to the next street. "Through there, you'll hit a dead end. Take the alley through."

He moved away before she could ask any more questions. Going off of his directions she went the way he'd shown her. She'd never been that way before. She followed it to the dead end, and going past an empty building found a narrow alley that was just barely wide enough for her to pass through without disturbing the trash cans within.

She continued to walk, searching for something familiar. Within ten minutes it was obvious that she was lost—far more lost than she had ever been before. What was more, she was starting to feel the sting of cold drops on her face as the sky grew darker and the streets grew more barren. She hesitated for a moment on a particularly desolate stretch of concrete, looking back and wondering if she shouldn't turn around and try again to find the right path.

But no sooner than she had thought this she turned to find that the way she had just gone through had disappeared.

Pausing on the sidewalk, she stared at the brick wall. "Curiouser and curiouser," she muttered burying her hands in her pockets before she turned back to the street.

It was a pretty empty place, with only a handful of the shops in either direction occupied. She wasn't sure which direction she should be going in anymore so she went the way that seemed more interesting. She passed dingy windows and shabby signs. She didn't pass anyone until she came across a bar that seemed set out of the way so nobody would notice it.

As she was passing by a low rumble vibrated through the air. Stopping on the threshold she glanced up at the sky, watching as lightning streaked across a second time.

"My dear, you should come in here. It's going to start pouring in a moment."

Luna turned to find herself facing a woman in a wild assortment of clothes. She looked as if she was pushing eighty years old, though there was a youthful sparkle in her dark eyes. "I have to get to Yum's Diner, I'm sorry. Do you know where that is from here?"

The woman shook her head, gripping Luna's arm with her vice-like fingers. "Come in dear, just for a moment. Maybe old Tom can help you."

She was yanked inside and sat down at a table in the corner. An assortment of crystals, cards and other things were laid out. A small green snake was curled up, apparently sleeping, around a sputtering candle. "Do you read fortunes?" asked Luna.

"Just a side business, dear," the woman said. "Just one moment." She disappeared for a few minutes, returning with a steaming cup of tea for herself and a bottle of amber liquid for Luna. Taking a sip of what the woman referred to as 'Butterbeer', Luna heard the rain begin to pelt the building.

"Looks like you aren't going anywhere for the next little while here," said the woman cheerfully. "Me name is Helga, dearie. How about I read you your fortune while you're here? I'll even give it to yer free of charge."

"Can you really do that?" said Luna, looking over the bits and bobbles skeptically.

"Of courssse…" the snake hissed. Luna's eyes widened in shock. The woman didn't seem to notice.

"Why of course! Had a special gift for it, even since my school days."

"We would never be allowed to do anything like that in my school," said Luna, trying to believe she'd imagined things. "Once a bunch of girls made paper fortunetellers and Miss Frawley took them up. She said she didn't like us messing with that kind of nonsense."

"Trust a muggle to say something like that," said the woman with a loud snort. Even the snake seemed to laugh.

"A what?" The woman fixed her gaze on her for a long moment, tumbling a handful of stones together.

"Just a word," said the woman, though she looked thoughtful now. Her eyes were now fixed on Luna's face. "Tell me dear, how did you get that unusual scar?"

"I don't know," she said, reaching up automatically to caress the mark on her forehead.

"Hmm," the woman murmured thoughtfully. She took her hand, turning the palm up. "What did you say your name was, my dear?"

"Luna. Luna Lovegood." She felt the woman's hand tighten over hers for a second.

"Ah. Lovely name," said the woman with a smile. She took another sip of her tea and then glanced down at the girl's hand. "Hmm…interesting," she said almost immediately.

"What?"

"It isss mostly made up of courssse," the snake hissed lazily.

"This break in your lifeline dear, so close to the beginning. It means you have experienced death early in life. And this broken chain…it will not be the last time." Luna thought immediately of her mother—could this woman possibly be seeing that? "This here is your head line…you are an intelligent girl, but there is a lot of emotion here. And here…this shows a major life change in your future."

Luna was listening to the woman speak, but she noticed that the handful of people in the bar had gone quiet and seemed to be listening to what the old woman was saying. And right before her was a snake that could, apparently, speak. "Ma'am, is your snake..." she began, cut off when the door slammed open.

"Luna? Luna, are you here?"

Her aunt's voice was carried in on the rain and wind. Luna broke the woman's grasp and stood up, waving.

"I'm right here. I got lost, I'm sorry."

"What EVER possessed you to come in this place?" Aunt Beatrice said angrily.

"I told you—"

"It doesn't matter. We're leaving and you're not leaving my sight until you're back at the flat." She dug her fingers into Luna's shoulder and pulled her through the door out in the pouring rain. She glanced back to see the woman waving and the snake waggling its tail. "I can't believe you! I gave you a simple task and you failed completely. I've never seen you behave so stupidly in your life."

"It was an accident! Ouch!" she yelped as she felt her aunt's fingers pinch. "STOP IT!" she screamed.

It seemed to Luna that several things had happened at once. It took her a moment to first realize that she was laying on the ground and, second, that the rain still pouring from the sky was not touching her. Her aunt was standing in front of her, pounding the air.

Luna stood slowly, reaching out. Her hand touched glass in midair. Luna's heart jumped and the barrier disappeared, sending her aunt falling forward.

The two did not speak for the rest of the way home. But Luna couldn't help but wonder what about the dingy bar had been so bad, when she might have gone anywhere else in London and not gotten the same reaction.

She wasn't punished for what happened—she imagined that her aunt was too startled by what had happened after to think of a punishment. But she was not asked to do any more errands for either her aunt or her uncle until the school year was well over.

But no matter what else happened, Luna could not forget the old woman in the bar. It had almost seemed that the woman knew her from somewhere, though she knew that was impossible. But it wasn't the first time such a thing had happened.

Luna sometimes imagined that all sorts of people who saw her on her treks through London knew her, and strange sorts of people they were too. Only a few weeks before a man in a green tophat had said hello to her aunt and then nodded to her before she had been pulled away.

Though she wasn't certain what, Luna was growing more and more certain that something strange was going on.


	3. The Dangerous Letters

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I'm glad to hear that people are taking an interest in this story I must admit that she is one of my favorite characters, and I have some plans for this that I hope you lik :)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Three: The Farewell Keepsake**

Luna was certain that something strange was going on, but her aunt would hear nothing of the subject. This was strange, because she didn't act as if the possibility of such a thing were impossible. In fact, the way that she was ignoring what had happened made Luna think that whatever it was that was going on was something bigger than she had yet begun to realize.

The only punishment she had received for her little adventure was that she was no longer allowed to go off by herself into the city, something that Kevin had protested at first by screaming and emphasizing that he'd _never _be able to finish Dungeon Combat Unlimited if he kept getting disrupted, and secondly by closing himself up in his room and blasting his television until even Uncle Henry had been forced to yell at him to keep it down.

By the time Uncle Henry was well enough to go out again, and the house finally started to quiet down, school was out, Kevin had finished not only Dungeon Combat but two other video games and was pining for the new Legend of Ra that had just come out, and Luna found herself overcome by a restlessness that she wasn't sure she could explain.

It was a rare morning when Luna awoke to find that she wasn't the only person stirring in the flat. Kevin had finally saved up enough of his allowance and was going out to get his game the moment the shops opened, and Uncle Henry was in the kitchen humming as he fried eggs and bacon. Luna skipped over, kissing him on his (now slightly more colorful) cheek, ignoring Kevin as he made rude gestures at her behind his father's back.

"Can I go with you when you go grocery shopping today?" she asked, taking the plate he handed her.

"Sure, kiddo," he said, chuckling as she curtsied and took a seat across from Kevin (who was now rereading the article on Legend of Ra he'd had clipped for over a month).

"You know, the combat system is completely weird. When you spill a certain amount of blood you get to do combos. It's totally wicked!" he said for what seemed to Luna like the hundredth time.

"I don't see the point in pretending to kill ancient Egyptian mummies. And anyway, didn't they drain out their blood?" said Luna.

Uncle Henry made a face—the talk of killing and curses and blood obviously didn't seem to agree with him. "Why don't you just spare us the gory details, Kevin?" he muttered.

"Mum reckons it isn't all that bad. I mean, it's not like I believe all the crazy junk is real or anything."

"I reckon magic is real," said Luna distractedly. Kevin stared at her while Uncle Henry tried desperately not to look at her.

"Why do you say that?" he said quietly, as Kevin started laughing.

Luna shrugged. "I guess because so many strange things have happened to me, I have to believe there's a reason for it all."

"There's no such thing, Looney," said Kevin. "Jeez, this is what happens when people read too many weird books."

Luna stuck her tongue out at him, then stopped when she saw that her uncle was getting ready to say something. "I expect that even if magic were real…and I mean, only _if…_that it would be a very dangerous thing to mess with. You understand me, Luna? And even _if _you found a way to use it I think the responsible thing to do would be to leave all that mess alone."

Kevin was laughing harder now, but Luna wasn't sure how she felt about her uncle's declaration. Neither her uncle nor her aunt had ever addressed an issue like that before. She wanted to say something else but Kevin was ready to leave and Uncle Henry seemed to be finished on the issue.

They dropped Kevin off at the game store (where he would likely remain for a few hours), then continued on to the grocery store, the dry cleaner, chemist, and finally home again. Dropping their bags on the table, Uncle Henry gave Luna the mail key and sent her down to the mailbox.

She ran downstairs, where she plucked out the usual assortment of bills, advertisements, and newsletters. At the very bottom of the box was an envelope of thick parchment paper, addressed in bright scarlet ink. Without looking to see who it was addressed to she ran back upstairs to help Uncle Henry unpack the groceries, tossing the mail on the small table beside his recliner.

"You look tired," said Luna, "and you're probably still sick. I'll finish." And so saying she took his place in the kitchen, letting him retire to his chair. He began sorting through the mail, sighing over bills and rolling his eyes over advertisements, until settling down with the strange envelope at the bottom of the pile.

Luna didn't notice what he was looking at—she was bent over cleaning out the vegetable drawer and didn't see the way he sat up straight, or peeled it open and read it through twice before tearing it into little pieces, and throwing these little pieces into the garbage.

In fact, Luna forgot about the letter altogether until the next day, when something happened to bring it back to her mind. She had run out with Uncle Henry again (at his insistence) and on returning had paused at the mailbox.

"I'll check it later," said Uncle Henry, pushing past. "I'm tired. I want to sit down."

They went upstairs, and opened the door to find a dozen letters littering the entrance. "Somebody trying to sell something," he said, obviously irritated as he quickly pushed the letters together and picked them up, going to the window and igniting them with a lighter.

Luna remembered the letter from the day before—what could possibly be making her uncle so nervous? She wondered if perhaps Kevin had gotten himself in some sort of trouble or if, and she definitely hoped that it wasn't so, the doctor had decided to rescind her uncle's clean bill of health.

The matter weighed on her for the rest of the day. As she lay in bed that night she decided that she wouldn't leave the flat for the next day, in case another of the letters came. But when morning came it was apparent that Uncle Henry had already had a similar idea. She woke up when he tapped on the door. "Luna? Aunt Beatrice just went to work. You and Kevin are coming with me to visit Aunt Frannie."

Her uncle's sister was not a pleasant woman to be around—even for Uncle Henry. So the fact that he was voluntarily forcing them to take a two hour's drive into the country to see her was enough to raise her suspicions. As she stumbled bleary-eyed out the door, listening to Kevin's complaints, she saw a handful of letters sticking out of his pocket.

"What are those about?" she mumbled.

"Nothing important," he said. But he still shoved them deep into the trash chute as they passed it.

The visit was as bad as Luna would suspect it would be—they spent two hours listening to her talk about her favorite cat, and another hour meeting her goats (though Luna had to admit that Mr. Butts was rather charming.)

When they finally arrived home that evening Uncle Henry seemed rather relieved, until they opened the door to find letters spilling over the edges of the kitchen table. Aunt Beatrice stood reading one as they walked in, and when she looked up a strange gleam was in her eye—in fact, she looked rather pleased, in the way that sometimes made Luna uneasy.

"Henry…Henry, did you see this? I knew it was time for it!"

"Yes, I saw," he said shortly. "Luna, go to your room." He began making his way over to the table. Aunt Beatrice's eyes widened.

"You mean she doesn't know? But…you realize how important this is! She's not ordinary, even by _their…"_

"ENOUGH!" Luna, who had already started to her room, stopped in her tracks. It was rare to hear him raise his voice. She turned to around and saw them staring each other down from across the table. "IN YOUR ROOM!" he shouted. Luna darted inside and shut the door.

She sat in front of the door, listening to the muffled words. She couldn't understand much, except her mother's name being brought up over and over again. After a time their voices died down, then everything went silent altogether. Not to longer after her door pushed open and her uncle glanced down at her. "Get some things together, Luna," he said. "We're taking a small vacation."

Not in a position to disobey, she did as she was told. When she went back outside the letters had all disappeared and her aunt was nowhere to be seen. Her uncle was standing at the front door.

"Is Aunt Beatrice in the car?" she asked.

Uncle Henry shook his head. "It's just you and me, kiddo. We're going to have a good time. Been a while since we did anything fun."

He guided her toward a cab. They said hardly a word to one another as they drove to a small hotel.

Luna tossed and turned in bed for most of the night on the hard bed, sleeping for a little while before her uncle was shaking her shoulder and repacking their things. As the passed the front counter a tiny old woman flagged them down. "Oy there, are these for you? Arrived early today, only I got about a hundred of 'em back here! Addressed to a Miss Luna Lovegood, Partridge Inn, Room 383…"

"The name is Fry, good day," he said, pushing Luna before she had a chance to react.

Outside a battered old motorbike awaited them. Without explaining how he'd got it, he piled on with Luna, latching their bags on to the side.

"What did she mean, those letters were for me?" Luna finally asked, as much anger as she'd ever had in her voice.

The motor roared and Uncle Henry didn't answer. They were on the road all day, the city roads and streets disappearing away until there was nothing but fields for miles around. They pulled onto a narrow country road nearing sundown, finally stopping at a ramshackle old building that was nothing more than a barn.

"I don't have any bed things," her uncle was saying as he piled up hay, laying his jacket over it. "This'll have to do for you."

"Uncle…" he glanced over at her as she spoke, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry. Believe me when I say this is for your own good." And with that he refused to speak for the rest of the night. Luna lay down on the bed that he had made for her, curling her arms around herself as she listened to the wind blowing outside.

It was nearing midnight when a sudden thought occurred to her. Noticing the hands ticking away on the little silver watch on her wrist, she realized that in less than five minutes she would be turning eleven. It was a mark of Luna's character that she had completely forgotten that her birthday was so near. Though her uncle always made it a point to recognize her birthday in some small way (though he could usually afford nothing more than a small cake), she had never been comfortable with the attention she got on that day.

She was wondering if it could be possible that everything that had happened in the past few days could possibly be a huge hoax when she glanced back at the clock. Her birthday was mere seconds away…ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…

The wind suddenly grew louder, and a huge crash sent the barn doors flying open. She glanced up, heart dropping into her stomach as she stared at he giant standing there. He walked right in, securing the doors before turning back around to stare at her. Uncle Henry was on his feet, choking on his words. The giant dismissed him, then smiled.

"So there yeh are, Luna. Happy birthday!"


	4. The Giant, the Guardian, and the Squib

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I'm going to be going back and forth on copying almost directly some of the lines and scenarios from the book for a little while. My reasoning is this...there are some things that, in the very beginning, aren't going to change just because the chosen one does. There are aspects that you'll notice I've snuck in to show some little differences..and big ones. Watch out for the line about the Prime Minister, and get ready for a Hagrid who's become something of a teetotaler ;)

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Four: The Giant, the Guardian and the Squib  
**

"Luna? Luna!" A figure came running into the barn and launched itself at her, squeezing her until she thought she might lose feeling. The large man had turned around and was busying himself with latching the doors, closing them off from the wind outside.

Turning her attention back to the woman, she saw her aunt's face come into view. She looked ecstatically pleased, more so than Luna thought she'd ever seen her. Uncle Henry was standing still in the same place, looking from Aunt Beatrice to the giant to Luna, and back again.

The man strode over to where the three of them stood, looking down at Luna with a grin that somehow transformed his features until he looked almost _friendly._

"Nice to meetcher…er, Horace it is?"

"Henry. Henry Fry." Luna's uncle cleared his throat, as if it had taken some effort for him to remember how to speak.

But he was no longer paying attention to him. "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh have the look of your mother…yeh sure do. Eyes are all her too."

Aunt Beatrice sniffed then, making them all turn to look at her.

"It…it's nice to hear from somebody who knew my sister," said Aunt Beatrice. "She was…lovely…wasn't she?"

"Never heard you say much o' that afore yeh left," said the giant with a snort. Turning bright red, she began to stammer but the man dismissed her with a wave.

"Anyway—no matter." He turned from the both of them, facing Luna. "A very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here—I mighta sat on it at some point but it'll taste all right."

He reached into an inside pocket of the massive black overcoat he wore, pulling out a crumpled box. Luna opened it with a degree of uncertainty. Inside was a large, sticky white cake with _Happy Birthday Luna _written on it in bright blue icing.

Luna looked up at the giant. Her manners stuck in her throat, and though she meant to say 'thank you' the words somehow changed on the way out and she said, instead, "What are you?"

The giant chuckled.

"True, I haven't introduced meself. Known your Aunt here for about as long as she's been alive but I s'pose she's never said anything about me. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He held out an enormous hand and shook Luna's entire arm.

"Would you like to go someplace a bit more…civilized?" said Aunt Beatrice then, glancing distastefully at the ramshackle barn. "We could discuss all of this over a bit of tea."

"Migh' as well get it all out here and over 'n done with," said Hagrid, "though I wouldn't say no ter that tea, if you'll give me a bit to get it started."

He looked around the entire barn until he spotted a clear spot against the wall. Brushing away stray bits of hay he began pulling things from his massive pockets. He bent over the spot so that they couldn't see what he was doing, but when he drew back a small, crackling fire illuminated that corner of the barn. The heat that washed over her was far from uncomfortable—in fact, it did very little to add to the heat coming from outside, and was altogether pleasant.

The giant knelt down on the ground, causing the barn to creak ominously. He began pulling more things from the pockets of his overcoat; a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some dark honey-colored liquid he downed in one gulp before starting to make tea. Soon the entire barn was filled with the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.

While he was working Aunt Beatrice tried to make small talk, but the giant only grunted to her in reply. Uncle Henry seemed frozen in place, unable to speak or move even when his wife nudged him over to take a seat on a large pile of hay. It was when the giant moved over and slid several fat, juicy, perfect sausages from the poker that they heard movement from outside. Everybody turned to see Kevin's face framed between the two doors.

"Don't come in here, Kevin!" said Uncle Henry sharply, in a tone of voice that seemed to surprise everyone, including Henry himself.

"Don't matter none if he come in here or not, looks ter me like yer boy could use a little fresh air."

He passed the sausages to Luna. Even though she hadn't eaten her curiosity kept her from being really hungry—though to be polite she ate two (which she had to admit tasted wonderful) and nibbled at another, all the while watching the giant's every move. After a little while, when she was fairly certain that nobody was going to explain anything that was going on, she said, "I don't mean to be rude, Mister Hagrid, but I really don't know who you are."

The giant gulped down an entire glass of tea and wiped his mouth with the corner of his coat.

"It's jus' Hagrid. Everyone calls me that. An like I told yeh, I'm keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts."

At this Aunt Beatrice coughed and both Hagrid and Luna turned to her. "I didn't really tell you…but, well you see…Luna's never really heard of Hogwarts before."

"Not heard of Hogwarts?" Hagrid blinked, as if the idea that anybody didn't know about it was astonishing to him. He rounded on the Frys. "So you mean ter tell me yeh've had Luna under your roof all these years and yeh've never told her a thing about it? And where did yeh tell her yeh learn it all?"

"All what?" said Luna from behind him. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Everything she had suspected for so long seemed so close to coming to light—she felt the world around her shifting, clicking into place. "Do you…do you mean magic?"

"Yes," said Hagrid and Aunt Beatrice together.

"NO!" cried out Uncle Henry, rushing forward suddenly. He knelt down beside Luna, gripping her shoulders with his hands.

"Henry! Do NOT make this difficult!" said Aunt Beatrice, standing with her fists on her hips. "You see? I wanted to tell her years ago, but THIS is why I couldn't…"

"You mean…she don't know anything?" said Hagrid. He looked as if he were getting confused.

"Not a thing!" said Aunt Beatrice, "and all because my fool of a husband had some crazy idea about _protecting _her!"

"But yeh must of told her about her mother," he said. "I mean, she's famous. _You're _famous," he said pointedly to Luna.

"What? My mum…she wasn't famous, was she?"

"Yeh don' know….yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through her hair. "Yeh don' know what yeh _are?"_

Luna felt Uncle Henry dig his fingers into her shoulder. "And she won't! I…I forbid you to tell her anything."

Hagrid looked as if he wanted to be angry. In fact, for a moment Luna thought that she could see anger flashing in his on beetle-black eye. But when he spoke again his voice was friendly, though perhaps tinged with a bit of annoyance.

"So yeh never told her? Never told her what was in the letter Dumbledore left for her? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Fry! An' you've kept it from her all these years?"

"What exactly?" said Luna. "About magic, or what?"

"STOP! PLEASE…please…don't tell her," he said weakly.

Aunt Beatrice started to speak but then seemed to think better of it.

"There ain't no use tryin' to hide it, Fry, but I don' know that you're thinking of what's best for the girl any more than she is, Beatrice," said Hagrid. "Luna.—yer a witch."

There was silence inside the hut. Even outside it was completely silent.

"A witch," Luna repeated, as if trying to absorb the information.

Hagrid nodded. "An a thumpin' good un, I'd say, once yeh've gotten a bit of schoolin'. With a mum like yours, don' see how you could be anythin' else. An here's yer letter…I reckon its time you read it."

Luna withdrew herself from her Uncle's grasp and reached out to take the envelope, addressed in scarlet to Miss L. Lovegood, The Floor, Barn in a Meadow, Middle of Nowhere. She pulled out the letter and read.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

HEADMASTER: Albus Dumbledore…

Reading the letter only brought up a hundred more questions that Luna felt she needed answers. But before she could ask any of them Uncle Henry had found his voice again.

"She's not going," he said.

Hagrid grunted.

"Henry…" Aunt Beatrice stammered.

"She's goin' and yeh better get over it," said Hagrid. "A muggle like you could never stop her…"

"A muggle?"

"Non-magic folk," responded Aunt Beatrice, as Hagrid was still staring down her uncle.

"We've raised this girl for ten years now because her mother was killed doing…doing whatever it is you people do! She got mixed up in some sort of funny business because of it and I don't want to see that happen to Luna!" said Uncle Henry.

"I keep telling you, it's not like that!" said her aunt.

"You both knew?" said Luna in astonishment, as if the idea of either her aunt or uncle knowing something fantastic or amazing was beyond her grasp.

"Knew? How couldn't I, my mother and father being a witch and a wizard themselves?" said Aunt Beatrice. From his spot at the door, Kevin gasped.

"You're a…a witch?" said Luna in shock.

"Of course not! Do you think I'd be working ten hours a day in a muggle café if I had any other choice? Here I was with the beautiful, the smart, the talented older sister, and come the age of eleven a summer passed and the term started without my letter ever showing up. A regular squib, I was! My parents were so ashamed, but having dear sweet Aurelia for a daughter made up for…for…for my deficiencies," she sniffed.

She stopped for a moment, looking almost as if she were going to cry. "Then she met that Xenophilius creature, and had you, and then he disappeared and your mother got blown up and you landed on my doorstep! And from that moment I knew I had a chance to prove it to my world…to all those people who thought I was nothing…because I was the on who raised YOU!"

Luna didn't know what to say. "Blown up? You said…you said my mother died in a laboratory accident."

"Laboratory, eh? Not so far off the mark with that," said Hagrid, though he was red in the face. Luna suspected he was angrier than he was letting on. "But nevertheless, she has a right to know her own story, when every kid in our world knows her name."

"Why?" said Luna then. "Why would anybody know my name?"

Hagrid shook his head worriedly. "I didn' know…when Dumbledore said there might be trouble gettin' hold of you, I thought yeh'd know a bit more…thought having somebody who grew up in magic yeh'd have some idea."

"Can't blame yeh, mind," said Hagrid, throwing a glance at Uncle Henry. "I can see yeh jus' think yeh're doin' what you think it righ', though it's more dangerous if the magic goes untrained…"

He shook his head. "I can't say I'm the righ' person to tell yeh, Luna, but someone's gotta—yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'. So I'll tell yer as much as I can tell yeh—mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great mys'try, parts of it…"

He sat down right on the ground, stared at the fire for a moment, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with—with a person called—"

"A wizard called Voldemort," Aunt Beatrice intervened. Hagrid visibly shuddered.

"Yeah, that's it, and if yeh don't mind I'd ask yeh not to say that name again. People in our world jus' don't say it."

"Why not?" asked Luna. "What's wrong with his name?"

"Well, because people are still scared. He was a bad wizard, went abou' as bad as any could go. About twenty years ago now he set out lookin' fer followers. Got em too—one's what were afraid, others wantin' a bit of his power for their own, 'cause he was getting' himself power all right. Dark days, Luna, people didn't know who to trust. Just a few safe places, Hogwarts bein' one of them…reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of.

"Now, yer mum was one o' those we weren't sure if we could trust. Don' get me wrong, she was amazing…talented an' all that…but she were always alone, and when she married Xenophilius Lovegood she went off and spent half her time who-knew-where. Thing is, we didn't hear much from her until she shows up a year or so after things get really bad sayin' she wants to help out. Xenophilius nowhere to be seen. A lot of us wouldn' have let her help but Dumbledore takes her in righ' away. Rumor is that You-Know-Who wanted her for himself…and yeh ain' gonna like this, but it looks like he got yer father even if he didn't get yer mum."

"Wait…you mean my father was one of his followers?" said Luna.

"There's no way of knowin' now. But all anyone knows about what happened after is this…yer mum had just had yeh. And on Halloween ten years ago he turned up out by your father's house, where your mother had gone into hiding. He came to yer house an'—"

He paused a second. The Frys were listening intently, and even Kevin seemed to have been absorbed into the story.

Hagrid blew his nose loudly, and continued. "You-Know-Who killed her. An then…an this is the mys'try—he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I s'pose, or maybe he was just killin' everything in reach of his wand by then. But he couldn' do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh—took care of yer mum an' yer dad an' yer house, even—but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Luna. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches and wizards of the age—the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts—an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

Luna felt something going on in the back of her mind, something that wasn't entirely comfortable. As Hagrid's story came to close she saw in her mind a blinding flash of green light—something she remembered for the first time though she was certain she had seen in many times before. And something else was in there; a high, cold, cruel laugh.

Hagrid was watching her sadly.

"Took yeh from the ruined tower myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh to yer family…"

"And you expect me to let her go after that story?" said Uncle Henry coldly. "Evil wizards…attempted murder? And I'm supposed to just let her go right on into it? I might as well paint a target on her asking to be killed!"

"She'll be fine. This Volde—You-Know-Who disappeared a long time ago. It's kind of like an old story…and you don't understand, she'll be famous! And…" Aunt Beatrice started talking quickly, stopping when she saw that everybody was staring at her.

"And you'll get right back in with them, won't you?" said Uncle Henry. "Been wanting that for years, ever since you had to go and get an _ordinary_ job. Found out you didn't like the moggle, or mogle…or whatever you call this world, after all! So now you want to put our niece in danger just so you can get chummy with them."

"Yeh two stop yer bickering!" said Hagrid in irritation.

Luna was a bit astonished, but had picked up one thing from their exchange. "So wait…what does it mean, that You-Know-Who disappeared?"

"Jus' that. Same night he tried to kill you. That's the biggest mys'try of them all. Some say he died…rubbish in my opinion, dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. There was those that was on his side that came back, as if outta trances…reckon they couldn' do it if he were comin' back.

"Most of us reckon he's out there but he's lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause something about you finished him, Luna. There was somethin' goin' on that niht he hadn't counted on—I dunno what it was, no one does—but somethin' about you stumped him, all right.

Hagrid looked at Luna with such a feeling of warmth she should have felt pleased, or proud, but all she could feel was that somehow somebody had made a horrible mistake. Not that she was a witch—it was something she had known, and in some way expected, for quite a while, but the idea that somewhere out there was important to so many people didn't make any sense.

She had never had many friends in school…never been the first picked for any team…in fact, had never really been important to anybody except perhaps for her Uncle Henry, who she knew to be as big a 'muggle' as they come.

"I…this all feels very strange," she said, biting her lip. "Uncle Henry?"

He started at being addressed by Luna so suddenly. She turned to him, putting her arms suddenly around his waist and squeezing tightly. "I'm sorry, but I have to go," she said. "I promise that I won't go and get myself killed," she said.

Uncle Henry sniffed, turning to look at Hagrid. "Is it true?" he said after a moment.

"What, Fry?"

"Is it more dangerous if she doesn't learn?"

Hagrid nodded. "She's got ter control it. Some bad accidents can happen to young people who don't get trained up."

Uncle Henry sighed then. "Well." He coughed. "Well then. I suppose there isn't much I can do about it." Aunt Beatrice clapped her hands.

"I'm takin' the girl to Diagon Alley in the mornin' so we best get some shut eye. And don' give me that look, Beatrice Malfoy…er, sorry, Fry…I'm takin' her without you."


	5. Diagon Alley, Pt 1

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **Ooh, two updates in a day. I have a couple more chapters already written and ready to post so I may be posting those also later today, if I have a chance to do my final tweaks.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Five: Diagon Alley, Pt. 1  
**

Luna could hardly sleep through what was left of the night, and when morning came she found herself awake long before anybody else was.

Her aunt and uncle had disappeared sometime in the night, along with Kevin. A quick glance outside showed her that they'd taken off sometime before dawn, leaving her alone with the sleeping giant. Curled up underneath his massive overcoat, she watched the sun rise through the open door.

She felt that she had woken up from a dream—and it made little sense to her that her life _before_ knowing should seem unreal to her. "But know I know that I wasn't crazy, all that time," she said to herself. "There is a school for witches…I'm a witch. And I'm going to go there and meet other people who are like me."

She was sitting there still when an owl slipped in on silent wings, landing near her feet. It craned its neck and looked at her with large yellow eyes, a newspaper clutched in its beak. A strange feeling overtook her—she'd never seen an owl before in her life, much more one that arrived as if it had some sort of purpose. Now she was even _more _certain she was in the right place, finally, and at the right time.

The owl dropped the paper after a moment and began to peck at the overcoat. She pushed it off, crawling out from under it. "You probably shouldn't do that," she whispered.

But it didn't listen to her, and kept on attacking the coat. After a moment she went over, placing her small hand on Hagrid's giant shoulder and nudging him. "Mr. Hagrid? There's an owl—"

"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the hay he'd fallen asleep on.

"I'm sorry?"

"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."

"I'd rather not dig in your pockets, Mr. Hagrid. It seems a bit rude, doesn't it?"

Sleepily, Hagrid rose up and rubbed at his eyes. "Don' feel rude to wake a sleepin' man, dunnit," he mumbled, though he said it cheerfully enough that Luna didn't take it too personally. After a moment he rose up and, taking the coat, rifled through his pockets (withdrawing several odd objects, including what seemed to a handful of live mice) until he found a handful of small shiny coins unlike any Luna had ever seen before. When he found what he was looking for the owl held out it's foot and he slipped them into the small leather pouch tied to it. The owl flew off back through the door.

"Ah, best be off anyway. Get an early start, we gotta get up ter London and get yer school stuff."

A small bronze coin had fallen on the floor. Luna picked it up, a sudden thought occurring to her as she looked at it. "Mr. Hagrid?"

"Its jus' Hagrid, don't think anybody ever calls me 'Mister'."

"Hagrid…how am I supposed to pay for my school things? My aunt and uncle…they don't have very much money. None at all, really."

"Nothin' you have to worry about," said Hagrid. "I s'pose yer aunt never told you yer mother left you a small fortune in Gringott's. I'll say yeh'll never hafta worry about money so long as you're alive."

"A small fortune?" Luna suddenly pictured bags of coins like the one's Hagrid had pulled out of his pockets, piled up in her small bedroom in the flat. "You mean she knew? Why didn't she ever try to get any? It could have paid for lots of things. It could have paid for Uncle Henry's medicine."

"I imagine she's tried," said Hagrid offhandedly as he shoved things back into his coat and threw it over his shoulders. "Go ahead and have a piece of cake for breakfast, I won't tell no one…but the Goblins don't let jus' anyone pick money out of a persons' vault, and I got yer key right here."

"Goblins?" Luna paused with a piece of cake in midair, staring at Hagrid. "You mean they're real? Like in muggle stories?"

"I dunno anythin' about muggle stories, but yeah…the Goblins run Gringotts. Wizarding bank, if you hadn't caught on. So yeh'd be mad to try and rob it. Prob'ly the safest place in the world next to Hogwarts if you want ter keep somethin' safe. As a matter o' fact I need ter make a stop at Gringott's myself…Hogwarts business." He drew himself up proudly.

"I guess you're pretty trustworthy," said Luna, "if you have to do all the important things."

"Er…well yeah…wouldn't say so myself but I'll let you…got everythin'? Come on, then."

Luna followed Hagrid outside, blinking in the bright sunlight. There was a small patch of oil where the Fry's car had been parked, but no other vehicle in sight. "How did you get here?" said Luna, with the all more important, _How are we going to get away from here? _on her mind.

"Flew," said Hagrid.

"Really? That sounds like fun!"

"Oh no, don't be getting' ideas," said Hagrid, as if he'd already read Luna's thoughts. "We're goin' to have ter walk a bit, car should find us before too long."

They took off down the path, Luna having to almost run to keep up with Hagrid's giant strides. After a little while Hagrid stopped, wiping his hand across his forehead. "Seems a shame to waste this much time, walkin'," he said finally. "If I was ter—er—get us going a bit faster, you wouldn't mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts? I'm not supposed ter do magic, yeh see…"

"I don't mind," she said, deciding it best not to ask why he wasn't supposed to…and ready to magic for the first time.

He produced a pink umbrella and tapped it on the dirt road. For a moment Luna didn't think anything had happened, until she realized that although the two of them were still standing in one place the road itself was moving beneath them like a great conveyor belt, pushing them forward.

Hagrid withdrew the newspaper as they were carried along, reading through it. Luna found a million more questions popping up in her head, a lot of them about the strange Goblin run bank he had mentioned, but as they would be there soon enough she decided she might as well wait and see for herself. So she let Hagrid read in silence, and watched the landscape pass them by.

"Ministry of Magic gettin' their fingers in things again," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.

"I suppose they run things, kind of?" said Luna.

Hagrid looked up over the edge of the paper. "Yeah, or try to anyway. Course they don't always do the best job of it. Wanted Dumbledore fer Minister and he'd of done a damn fine job o' it, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Rufus Scrimgeour got the job. Tries to control everything, from the weight of cauldrons to magical creature control to what not…Dumbledore has kept him out of the school though, and that's been a sticky point fer years…"

Luna tried to take in everything that he was saying. It sounded to her like a lot of the same junk that went on with the muggle politics she sometimes paid attention to when her uncle watched the news.

"So that's what they do? Control magic?"

"Well, that. The big thing is, they try ter keep the muggles from findin' out about us."

Luna nodded. It made sense to her, and she said as much to Hagrid. "Because people would be wanting all sorts of things, wouldn't they? If they knew somebody could just…you know…fix things."

"Yer a smart one, aren't yeh?" said Hagrid. The two of them lurched forward suddenly as the road stopped moving, leaving them at the edge of a paved road. They had been standing there for a moment when an old blue car pulled up. Hagrid opened the door for her and she climbed in.

Her first thought had been that there was no possible way the giant could fit into the tiny blue car—but as he climbed in after her the interior seemed to stretch to accommodate him, until it was almost three times as large as it had seemed from the outside. She was glad that they had a car to themselves, because for almost the entire trip Hagrid was pointing to one thing or another and saying, "See that, Luna? Never can get over all the things these muggles dream up."

One or two times she was afraid that he was going to crash them right into another car as he got distracted, but thankfully the car seemed almost to drive itself. She suspected that as much was the case, considering the car seemed to have gotten to them without a driver.

Luna had read and reread the letter several times, including the lengthy equipment list that was included. She was just wondering where they were possibly going to find all those things when they pulled up to the small bar she had run into by accident just a few weeks before. "I've been here!" she said in astonishment as she stepped out of the car.

"Heard it from Tom yeh had, but yeh didn't stay long," said Hagrid with a chuckle. He got out after her and closed the door, patting the car on the hood in a friendly manner and saying, "I'll see yeh, now get on back to Arthur," before it took off again on it's own.

The pub was as grubby and small as she remembered, though something about it carried a mystical air on second glance. It now fully struck her that most people didn't even spare it a second glance as they passed it, as if it weren't even really there.

It was somewhat more crowded than it had been on the morning that Luna stumbled in. She disappeared behind Hagrid as they made their way inside, and the bartender called out, "It's been a while Hagrid, you take up drinking again?"

"Not today. Anyway, I'm here on Hogwart's business," he said, pushing Luna forward so she wasn't able to hide between the folds of his coat.

"Good Lord. So it was her," he said, peering at Luna. "I was hardly able to believe it that day. Is this…is it…?"

The Leaky Cauldron suddenly went completely still and silent.

"Bless my soul. Luna Lovegood, what an honor."

He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Luna and seized her hands, tears in his eyes.

"Welcome back, Miss Lovegood, welcome back."

"Er—nice to meet you," she said, though a part of her thought that perhaps she could have come up with something better.

And then it seemed that everybody in the bar was suddenly around her, wanting to shake her hand, or touch her hair, or otherwise be near her.

"Reginald Belkley, never thought I'd get a chance to see you. A great honor, this is."

"What a pretty young thing, everybody is already so proud of you…"

"Yes, that's right, always wanted a chance to meet you…I have goosebumps!"

"Had a hunch that day, good to see you again!" Luna started as she realized that the woman in front of her was the one who had read her fortune.

"You're the woman from the other day!" said Luna excitedly. She wanted to ask about the snake, but before she could think of it Hagrid was pulling her away toward the back door. But before they could make it a tall, dark haired man was making his way toward them. Hagrid stopped in his tracks.

"Professor Snape! Never thought I'd see you in here!" Hagrid turned to Luna. "Professor Snape will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."

"Miss Lovegood." He nodded curtly at her. He did not ask to shake her hand. "It is good to see you well and returned to our world." He turned his attention back to Hagrid—Luna listened in on their conversation as two more wizards made their way over from the bar to meet her.

"—returned to the school," Snape was saying.

"—say why?"

"—not. Does he ever?" Snape had crossed his arms, and although he was half the size of Hagrid Luna thought that the giant seemed somewhat intimidated. Hagrid nodded after a moment and Snape turned away.

"I'll see you again at the start of term. I hope you intend to be a studious young witch." He nodded again as he passed.

"I think I like him," said Luna as Hagrid led her out the back door.

"Snape?" Hagrid glanced over his shoulder as if he thought he'd reappeared. "He's a good professor, but a hard 'un. Yeh can take him, can't yeh, Luna?" he said, nudging her in the arm.

They were standing inside a small, walled courtyard that was unoccupied apart from some weeds and an overflowing trash can. Hagrid grinned at Luna.

"Told yeh you was famous, didn't I? Even Snape seemed pleased to meet yeh."

"That was pleased?" said Luna, getting a chuckle from Hagrid.

"Far as Professor Snape goes, yeh could say so. Been at Hogwarts fer a good number a' years now. Never seen the feller smile in all that time…think he's told a joke twice, but I never could tell if he were really kiddin' that second time…ah, here we go."

As he'd been speaking Hagrid had been counting the bricks in the wall above the trash can. "Three up…two across…" he muttered. "Right, stand back Luna."

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.

Luna thought, as she watched, that the wall took on a life of its own for just a moment. The brick Hagrid touched began trembling fiercely, and a hole appeared, spreading wider and wider until they were facing an archway large enough that Hagrid could walk right on through it without bending over or scraping the top of his head.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."

Luna smiled brightly, which to Hagrid seemed far more fascinating than the bustling street they now faced. He grinned at her amazement and they stepped through the archway. Behind them, and unnoticed by either, the archway shrank instantly back into a solid wall.

The first thing Luna noticed was a table covered in sparkling glass vials, both empty and filled with a rainbow of liquids that ranged from neon green to the deepest, darkest black. Large wooden kegs were filled with things labled—Eye-Newt, 1 knut per pinch and Scales-Chinese Dragon, 8 sickles.

"Yeh'll need some o' that, but we gotta get yer money first," said Hagrid.

Luna wished that she had an entire week or so to explore the bustling alley. There seemed to be something for her to see in every direction—the shops, and the people, and most of all the strange and amazing things being sold everywhere she turned.

Hagrid allowed her to pause for a moment outside a place called Eeylops Owl Emporium. "Witches and wizards keep owls as pets?" she asked, remembering the one that had delivered the newspaper.

"More'n pets. Useful is what they are—deliver yer packages and whatnot. That white one there, beauty isn't she?"

Luna took note of the large snowy owl—and indeed, she was beautiful—but another had caught her attention. "I like that one there," she said, pointing at a medium size one with silvery gray feathers. They moved along, passing by a broom shop surrounded by boys about her age whose conversation didn't seem far off of the sort she heard from the boys in her class at school. There were shops selling shining cauldrons, and robes, and telescopes, and strange antique items with uses she wasn't entirely certain of….

"Gringott's," said Hagrid.

They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was—

"That's a goblin, isn't it?" said Luna, eliciting a pained look from Hagrid as he looked down to see if the creature had noticed.

There was no way for them to be certain that he had—it was slightly shorter than Luna, with a swarthy, clever face, pointed beard and, Luna noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed at them as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

_Enter stranger, but take heed,_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay dearly in their turn._

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware,_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

"Yeh'd be mad ter try and rob it," said Hagrid with a shake of his head.

Luna had expected the inside of the bank to be about as bustling as it had been outside in Diagon Alley. She was therefore surprised to find that the inside was blocked off by a large stone wall. A line had formed behind a round hole in the center of it, at which another goblin was speaking to people and directing them this way and that, where other goblins emerged from holes that appeared and vanished.

"Didn't used to be so closed off, but there was a robbery last year," said Hagrid. "'member what I said, yeh'd be mad ter try and rob it?"

"Yeah?"

"Fool learned his lesson."

Luna shivered—she wasn't sure she liked the sound of what Hagrid had said. They were approaching the counter now. "Morning," said Hagrid. "We've come ter take some money outta Miss Luna Lovegood's safe."

"You have her key?" said the goblin.

"Somewhere…hold on." Hagrid began emptying his pockets on the counter, getting a look of disgust from the goblin and sighs of impatience from the people behind them. He finally held up a tiny, silver key.

"There yeh are," he said. The goblin leaned forward, nodding.

"All right. And…you are from Hogwarts, is this correct? I understand you also have some business with us today."

"Er—" Hagrid stammered for a moment. "Professor Dumbledore has decided to take care of the matter himself," he said. "The You-Know-What will remain at Hogwarts for the time being."

The goblin coughed, which Luna took to mean that it was too pleased. Finally it said, "Very well then. If you'll take the door to your left Simmons will take you to your vault. And good day."

Simmons was not a goblin. In fact, Simmons was as ungoblinlike as Luna imagined it was possible to be. He was a tall, skinny man who was probably quite a bit older than he appeared, and Luna hoped a great deal more intelligent. He bowed to them slightly as he asked them to follow him to a stone passageway. There were black metal sconces along the walls that had once held flaming torches, Luna imagined, but the entire place was now lit by an unearthly blue-green light that seemed to make Simmons look somewhat ill.

"People work here too?" said Luna as Simmons waved his wand and a cart whizzed from out of nowhere to right where they stood.

"Didn' used ter," said Hagrid. "Been about five years since the ministry muscled its way in here…"

"Eight," said Simmons. Luna thought that the idea seemed very distasteful to him.

The cart took off, and though they were moving very fast the ride was fairly smooth. Luna noticed, however, that the deeper they moved inward and the more twisting and narrow the passages became it seemed that things became much more as she had imagined they should—the torches reappeared, it grew dim, and as they whizzed around a corner she almost thought she saw a dragon shifting about in the shadows.

They rounded a corner and the cart came to a stop. Simmons stepped forward and unlocked the door. A lot of pale silver smoke came billowing out, sending the man into a coughing frenzy, but as it cleared Luna was astonished to see more money than she had ever encountered in her entire life.

She had imagined bags of money—but here it was arranged in towering piles of gold, silver and bronze. Along high shelves were strange artifacts that she would have asked to see if they had had any time, but before she could straighten things out in her head Hagrid was helping her pile what she needed into a bag, explaining to her the name and worth of the money they gathered.

"Did I really see a dragon?" Luna asked on the trip up. "Are they real?"

"Yeah, they're real…beautiful critters. Crikey, I'd like a dragon for meself one day," he said with a sigh.

Luna laughed to herself. She had a bag full of money, was sitting in a flying cart with a one-eyed giant who wanted a dragon for his very own…and she'd never been happier in her life.


	6. Diagon Alley, Pt 2

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **Told you I'd get another one up today! I'd like to say thank you for the positive response. I appreciate the adds, the reviews, the alerts...they're all very welcome!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Six: Diagon Alley Pt. Two**

Luna took a deep breath as they stepped out of Gringott's. She scanned the long street, hardly able to decide where she should go first. A twinge of guilt assaulted her as she thought of the large sum of money now tucked safely away in the pouch she wore at her side. However much galleons, sickles, and knuts translated into pounds, she was certain it was far more money than the Frys had had in their bank account for quite some time.

"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Mdms. LeCleuric's Fine Robes and Raiments. "Can't very well go with yer, so do yeh mind if I go have an ice cream across the street? 'aven't had a good 'un in a while." He looked as if the thought really did excite him, so Luna went on into the robe shop, so distracted by the colorful fabrics (many like none other she'd ever seen before) that she almost walked into Mademoiselle LeCleuric.

She was a thin woman "with a nervous sort of smile, draped in bright purple.

"Hogwarts uniform?" she said, turning Luna into a small room. "We're fitting anuzzer young girl back here. Step up, mon cherie… "

Luna hopped up onto the stool offered her, and as the woman disappeared into a back room she glanced over at the girl standing next to her. She looked distracted, as if she had far more important things to be doing than being fitted for her uniform. Her curly black hair fell in a mane down her shoulders and her eyes were deep set and heavily lidded. She noticed that Luna was looking at her and sniffed.

"Hello," she said. "I suppose you're starting at Hogwarts this year?"

"Yes," said Luna.

"My auntie is getting the rest of my things for me. I wish that this wasn't taking so long, because I just _know _I won't get to see everything I want to see." She had a haughty, arrogant voice. "My cousin is going to want to go stare at racing brooms for an hour, I just know it. He gets his own this year now that he's a second year. But if I'm forced to stand around for that long looking at them I'm going to try and force auntie into letting me poke around Knockturn Alley a bit."

Luna didn't know when she had ever met a girl who seemed so conceited.

"Do you have any brothers, or anything?"

"My cousin, Kevin," said Luna.

"Does he play Quidditch?" she asked.

"No. He plays lots of other games, though," said Luna, who was pretty certain that if a game called Quidditch existed Kevin would have heard of it.

"I think it's overrated, honestly—auntie would much rather I get top marks, but she knows it isn't going to happen with Draco so she lets him have his fun. I'll bet I'm the best in my house…know which one you'll be in yet?"

"No," said Luna, who was positive she'd never heard of houses or anything like that.

"Hmm. Well, I know I'll be in Slytherin because my entire family has been…there's not another worth being in, in my opinion."

Luna was stuck for something else to say, saved when she heard the girl exclaim. "What _is _that?" she gasped, staring at the front window. Hagrid had reappeared, eating a giant ice cream cone and holding another that Luna assumed was meant for her, judging by his gestures.

"His name is Hagrid. He works at Hogwarts," said Luna.

"Oh," said the girl. Luna wasn't sure that she liked the sound of that _oh. _It sounded a bit too much like, 'oh, well know that I know that I've decided it wasn't worth the effort in asking after all.'

"He's very nice," said Luna.

"Nice? I've heard about him…he's just some big, dumb idiot. Doesn't even use magic…almost as bad as a squib."

"My aunt is a squib," said Luna, as close to getting angry as she had been in a very long while. "What of it?"

"A squib? And the gamekeeper?" scoffed the girl. "And what's wrong with your parents?" she laughed.

"My mother is dead," said Luna.

"Oh," the girl said again. It was the same sort of _oh _ as before. "Oh, well, she was a witch at least, wasn't she?" When Luna had nodded she continued on. "You can at least see, can't you? People who haven't been brought up around magic shouldn't even be allowed in. They're different, you know."

"I'd be pretty bored if everybody were the same," said Luna. The girl's eyes widened, and she opened her mouth as if to accuse her of something when the seamstress reappeared and dismissed them both. Luna took her things and ran out, straight into Hagrid, who handed her a strawberry ice cream cone.

"There was a very rude girl in there," said Luna after taking her first bite. "She said some very rude things about you. And squibs."

Hagrid flushed a little, nodding. "Well, yeh get a lot of 'em. I imagine it's true 'o muggles and our kind, alike." They walked on for a minute. "Jus' wonderin'…well, what'd she say abou' me?"

Luna stopped where she stood. "Oh…nothing. Just something about how big you are," she lied.

She began telling him about the other things the girl had said, and Hagrid listened to every word without stopping her until she mentioned the name of the girl's cousin.

"Did yeh say Draco was his name?" said Hagrid. "Bad news. The Malfoy boy fell a little further from the tree than the rest 'o his fam'ly, but if'n what yeh're sayin' is right then yeh just met young Eris Lestrange. Can't tell yeh too much, but I'll tell yeh now to keep an eye out."

As they made their way toward their next destination, Luna got a brief lesson on the houses at Hogwarts. Slytherin, the one the girl had mentioned, was home to rather nasty crowd. According to Hagrid every wizard ever gone bad had belonged to Slytherin, and at school they were a sly and sneaky bunch. Years and years before, Voldemort had belonged to Slytherin.

Hufflepuffs were known to be a bit slower than the rest, but according to Hagrid "that's jus' not true. Hard workers, and loyal to the end they are. The other two houses were Ravenclaw and Gryffindor…the witty and the bold, as Hagrid so deemed them.

He was rounding up the lesson as they walked into the bookstore. Of all the places she had expected to visit this was the one she was most interested in, and she was happy to find that it didn't disappoint. They gathered her textbooks within fifteen minutes, and spent the most of the next hour browsing for such titles as _Mystery Curses: Bewildering Bewitchment _ and _The Conspirator's Beastiary, _which she spent five minutes perusing.

"Are there really such things as nargles?" she asked Hagrid as he pulled her away to the counter to pay so they could move along.

"Load o' tosh," he mumbled.

They visited the apothecary Luna had seen when the first entered Diagon Alley, bought her scales and cauldron for a great deal from an old witch with a crooked grin, and made a brief stop in an art store at Luna's insistence, where she exchanged a handful of silver coins for paper, pencils, and paint that would literally come to life (if the shopkeeper was to be believed).

When the emerged from this last stop Hagrid plucked Luna's list from her hand, grunting over it. "Just yer wand left—yeh know, why don' I let yeh do it on yer own. I had some business ter take care of, think I'll get it out of the way while you're in."

"Oh…okay, sure," she said, though a small part of her felt she'd rather have him along as buying a wand seemed by far the most frightening thing she was going to do all day. Hagrid led her to a shabby looking shop. She read the peeling gold letters on the window before stepping inside. There was a long counter, behind which wands were piled up straight to the ceiling. It felt strange and silent and, to Luna, surprisingly safe.

"Good afternoon." If she hadn't spotted the man before he spoke she might have felt a prickle go up her spine. He was staring at her, eyes glimmering in the shadows.

"It's past afternoon, more like evening," she said nervously. The man chuckled wheezily.

"Luna. Luna Lovegood, I was certain the time had come for you to walk through these doors." He stared for another few seconds. "You have the look of your mother. I remember the day she was in here, buying her first wand. Twelve inches long, rather rigid, made of oak. Well suited for transfiguration."

"Your father on the other hand, favored a willow wand. Almost fourteen inches, incredibly swishy, a powerful wand for charms. Well, I say your father favored it—it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

As he was speaking Mr. Ollivander was coming closer and closer to Luna, so close when he finished speaking that they were almost nose to nose. She had almost decided to back away when he reached out with one finger and touched the pale crescent that marred her forehead.

"And of course…I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did this," he murmured. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands…well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"

He shook his head. Luna was wishing that Hagrid had joined her after all—the attention he was devoting to her was beginning to make her uneasy.

"Well now, Miss Lovegood…" he pulled out a long tape measure with gold markings from his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

Luna held out her right hand, fairly certain of what he'd meant. He took her wrist and pulled her arm until it was straight out. "There we are…" He measured her from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round the head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a magical substance, Miss Lovegood. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Luna had been aware for some time now that the tape measure, now measuring the distance between her eyes, was doing so on its own. Mr. Ollivander had abandoned it to flit around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Miss Lovegood. Try this one. Cherry and unicorn hair. Ten inches. Somewhat rigid…well, what is it Miss? Give it a wave."

Luna wasn't paying attention to him. She was looking up at the shelves, where a box had fallen a little and the top had slid back. The wand inside did not look so different from the others that Mr. Ollivander had laid out for her but Luna felt a strange warmth in her midsection as she looked at it. "I think I'd like to try that one," she said.

"Miss Lovegood?" He turned around then, his gaze falling on the wand she had picked out. "You haven't even begun to test these…"

"I will in a moment. I'd just like to see that one. Please?"

He did not move for a long moment. Finally he turned, climbing up on his ladder to pull it from the shelf. He held it in two hands, glancing from it to Luna, and back again until held it out to her. "Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, ncie and supple."

She took it in her hand. The same warmth she had felt in her midsection spread out to her fingers. She swished it through the air, showering the counter in red and gold sparks. Mr. Ollivander cried out, "Amazing! I haven't seen anything like it…how very strange and in this case…curious. Very curious."

The man's initial excitement had faded and he was now rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. "And what is so curious?" she asked.

"Why…besides that you were so clearly destined to carry this wand, it is the particular wand that chose you. I remember every wand I've ever sold. Each and every one. I tjust so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand gave another feather—just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when it's brother gave you that scar."

Luna's eyes widened. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the witch or wizard, remember…I think we must expect great things from you, Miss Lovegood…after all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things—terrible, yes, but great."

Luna straightened her back. She thanked Mr. Ollivander, paid the seven galleons for her wand, and smiled at him as she left his shop.

It was almost dark when Luna and Hagrid made their way back to the end of Diagon Alley. They said very little, though every so often Luna would peek under the curtain that covered the cage she now held in her hand, where the silvery owl hooted softly at her.

She was close enough to home that there was no need for a train or a bus. Hagrid walked beside her as she turned her step toward the flat. When she had gone without speaking for several minutes Luna sighed and stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk.

"It's very strange, Hagrid. All these people have been treating me as if I'm something special…something more than them. Is it going to be like this with everybody who knows me? I don't want to be somebody special."

"Yeh'll fit in fine," said Hagrid, "an if'n I can't promise yeh won't get treated diff'rent time to time, yeh'll have others who'll see yeh for what yeh are, no matter what. Just be yerself. Hogwarts is always a great place to be."

They had arrived at the door the flat. Hagrid had almost turned away when he stopped. "Almos' forgot, here's yer ticket. First o' September—King's Cross—it's all on yer ticket. Any issues yeh send a message with yer owl, but I don' think it'll be a problem."

Luna thanked him, and fishing a key out of her pocket she let herself inside. The Frys were there, all hidden away inside their rooms. She stared at the ticket for a moment, then darted to the window and pulled aside the curtain for one last glimpse of the one-eyed giant. But by the time she reached the window Hagrid had gone.


	7. The Hogwarts Express

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **One last post tonight! Hope you think it's a good one!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Seven: The Hogwarts Express**

Luna was surprised to find that her last month with the Frys was hardly as bad as she thought it might be

After a few days of silence her aunt began to talk about the beginning of term as if she herself were starting. Luna learned quite a bit about her mother in those days, from the stories that Aunt Beatrice told her (which were themselves secondhand accounts of stories that she had heard long ago.) Uncle Henry had far less to say, though Luna was worried to see that he had become sicker again. She spent much of her time when she wasn't getting her things in order by his bedside.

Kevin of course remained hidden in his room, though this was nothing surprising or new.

Many times while she sat with her uncle she would bring her new owl (whom she had named Hermes) and her books, which she read out loud to him while Hermes preened his feathers. Every day when her aunt got back from work she would a day off of the calendar that she had tacked on the wall, smile and Luna and say, "Well, another day closer are we?" before sitting down with her dinner.

There was a big to-do on the night before September 1st. Aunt Beatrice packed Luna's trunks herself, pressing her robes neatly and packing a small lunch for her. She had already come across the small pouch of money in Luna's things and had said nothing. If she had, Luna thought she might have offered the entire sum of it to the Frys and gone back to Gringott's later for whatever she needed.

As the evening grew to a close Uncle Henry came out of the bedroom and motioned for Luna to sit with him on the couch.

It took him a moment to catch his breath. Luna stared at the floor until he finally spoke.

"I just want you to know that I think you're a wonderful girl," he said. "And I…I'm sure you'll be wonderful at whatever it is you decide to do. Just promise me you'll be safe Luna?"

Throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed him soundly on the cheek. Then it was time for bed, and although she lay down under the covers certain that there was no way she was ever getting to sleep that night she soon found herself slipping away into darkness.

The next thing she knew it was morning. Hermes fluttered in just as the sun was peeking over the horizon and for the first time since she'd brought him home she shut him up in his cage, drawing the curtain closed over him. Just as she started pulling on her clothes there was a sharp knocking on the bedroom door.

"I'm just getting dressed!" she called out.

She heard footsteps moving away. Once she'd finished up she opened the door and saw Aunt Beatrice standing there, wearing a pair of faded jeans and old jumper. "Your uncle is asleep," she said. "Better not wake him."

Luna nodded. She picked up her trunk and took Hermes with the other hand, making her way out of the flat. When she glanced back she noticed that light illuminated the small crack underneath her aunt and uncle's bedroom door, and right before she closed the door she thought she saw movement beyond.

Aunt Beatrice tried nervously to speak to her as they took the train to King's Cross. But she suddenly seemed at a loss for words. They arrived at a quarter to ten, and loading all of Luna's things onto a cart they made their slow trek through the station. Luna found herself scanning the crowd for anybody else who looked as if they were going somewhere strange and special, but everybody she saw looked like business people or families going on or coming back from holiday.

They came to a stop as they passed platform nine. "There you are," said Aunt Beatrice. "It's right between nine and ten…all you have to do is push on through, the wall shouldn't stop you."

"Aren't you coming with me?" she asked in surprise. Her aunt had been so enthusiastic about Hogwarts Luna thought it a wonder she wasn't trying to go in her place.

"I-oh, you don't need me," said Aunt Beatrice. "You go on."

The suggestion seemed to have made her aunt nervous. Wondering what exactly was going on in her aunt's head she turned around and faced the brick wall. It looked as solid as any brick wall could look. She hesitated for a moment and then, realizing that she ought to at least try it, she pushed off and launched herself at, and then through, it.

New sounds and scents suddenly surrounded her. Opening her eyes, she found herself facing a sign that said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Behind here there was now an archway of wrought-iron with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it.

A scarlet engine was churning out clouds of steam that lifted and then settled about the teeming crowd of people that filled the space between her and the train. She made her way into it, walking as slowly as she could to take in everything that she could see. Cats wove through the people, unconcerned about the proceedings going on above their heads. A menagerie of owls hooted at one another over the din, as carts scraped into one another and people shouted greetings.

Early as it was not many people had boarded the train and Luna found herself a seat in the second compartment, which was completely empty. She pulled the cart right up to the door, lifting Hermes up and into his place first before trying to pull her large trunk up and through the door.

It slipped from her fingers and slammed back down into the ground. She sighed in annoyance, and right as she reached down to try again somebody else had reached in to take the handle from her.

"Need help?" he asked.

She looked up into a pair of bright green eyes. "Yes, thank you," she said standing back up.

"Oy, Ron! Get over here!"

A tall, red-haired boy parted from the crowd and came to join his friend, both of who couldn't have been much older than she was. The two of them hefted her things up into the compartment and got them stowed away. When they were finished the first boy gave her his hand.

"My name is Harry Potter. Are you a first year?"

"I am. My name is Luna Lovegood."

To his credit, Harry hardly blinked when he heard her name, but Ron immediately turned his gaze to her forehead and stared for a moment at the crescent mark there. She felt her color rise as Harry nudged his friend hard in the ribs and excused the both of them.

She sat down near the window, watching the boys as they ran up to a tall, beautiful woman with dark auburn hair. "Mrs. Potter, you'll never guess who we just met!" said Ron excitedly.

"Why, if it isn't Merlin himself I'll be damned!" mock-shouted the man standing beside her (who must have been Harry's father, as he and his son looked incredibly similar.)

"Dad, don't be an idiot," said Harry. "It was that girl we saw passing through here—you know, the one I helped get on the train."

"What about her?" asked the woman. She reached out to grab the shoulders of a young girl as she ran at her from the middle of the crowd.

"It's Luna Lovegood!" said Ron. "And it's just like the rumors say! She's got a moon-shaped scar right on her forehead."

The Potters suddenly looked very serious. "Harry? Is this true?"

He nodded. Mrs. Potter looked back at the train. Luna ducked down so she wouldn't see her. "Poor little girl," said Mrs. Potter. "I wonder how she's doing."

The rest of their conversation was lost to her. At about that time the door to the cabin opened and a boy with white-blonde hair and a somewhat pointed face walked in. He looked around for a moment before asking, "Did you see a girl with curly black hair come through here?"

Luna shook her head no, and he said "good" and took a seat nearby. He had already changed into his robes, and catching sight of a blue and bronze coat of arms she asked him which house he was in.

"Ravenclaw," he said, now turning his attention to her more fully. She saw that he almost immediately looked up at the scar on her forehead, but to his benefit he didn't say anything about it.

"Is it a good house?" she asked.

"I like it," he said. "I'd much rather be a Ravenclaw than a Slytherin. I suppose my cousin will probably be sorted into Slytherin tonight though—she's one of the worst little brats I've ever known."

"Who's your cousin?"

"The girl with the curly black hair." He glanced back at her scar. "My name is Draco Malfoy by the way. And you're Luna Lovegood." He said it as a statement.

"I am," she said. Glancing outside again she saw that Harry and his friend were getting ready to board the train. She caught a glimpse of what had to have been the redheaded boy's family—it was massive, and to all appearances most male. A plump woman was leaning over a small girl.

"Now brush your hair out of your eyes, Ginny, and don't listen to anything your older brothers tell you. Except for Percy of course."

"Mum, I'll be all right!" she said in exasperation. Her mother fussed for a moment longer, and then one by one the entire group trooped out of sight and, Luna supposed, onto the train.

"Do you know them?" asked Draco.

Luna turned around suddenly, somewhat embarrassed that she'd been caught looking. "No, I don't really know anybody from this world," she confessed. "But the one named Ron helped me. He and his friend Harry.'

Draco raised his eyebrow. "So you've met Harry Potter, then? He's a bit famous around school."

"Why?" asked Luna. She wondered if perhaps he had some sort of weird history like she did.

"Quidditch. First first-year in a century to make his house team. Gryffindor went undefeated last year."

"Hmm," she said. She looked back out the window but the entire group had disappeared. "He seemed pretty nice," she said.

"He's not a bad guy. His parents are war heroes, too." Draco sat up then, leaning in toward her. "You know, I always thought you'd be some sort of brat like my cousin. Do you really not know anybody in our world?"

Luna shook her head, and before she knew it had begun confessing to him everything that had happened in the past few months—even the way her muggle uncle had tried to protect her by keeping her letters a secret.

When she had finished Draco looked astonished. After a moment he said, "You might think it's strange but in a way I wish I could have grown up that way. People knowing all your history and everything…and then they think they know you." He looked troubled.

"But isn't it more difficult if you've never been around magic before?" said Luna. "You must know lots of things already. I'm going to feel completely stupid."

"Don't let it get you down. Lots of people come in knowing nothing and end up top of their class."

They were mere moments away from eleven o'clock. Their compartment was still empty, and several times Luna noticed people poke their heads in and leave immediately. After this had happened more times than she could count, Luna decided to ask Draco about it.

"Is there some problem with me?"

"Not with you," he said. "People don't exactly like me."

"You don't seem too terrible," said Luna.

Draco looked up at her, and for the first time something like a smile came over his face. "You're not exactly a troll yourself," he said. "It's because my father is in prison. He was a pretty big supporter of You-Know-Who. People think I'm like him, I guess. Funny thing is, you and me are something like cousins, and I don't see anybody accusing the Girl-Who-Lived of being like them."

"Cousins? Really?"

"Sort of. My father is a Malfoy and so was your mother, before she got married. I think they may have been first cousins. But almost everybody is related somehow," said Draco, "so people don't usually think it's that big a deal."

But to Luna it was a big deal. Apart from her aunt, uncle, and cousin she'd never met another blood relative. To find out that the boy who had just randomly sit across from her on the train was a…what, a third cousin? It suddenly made her presence in the magical world seem far more real.

The train was now sweeping past open fields, far from London. At half past twelve a woman who was several inches shorter than Luna came along with a car piled high with sweets. "Would you like anything, dear?" she asked.

Luna looked the cart over, surprised to find that none of the sweets she was used to were present. Seeing the way she looked at everything, Draco handed the woman a galleon and picked out an armful of candies, which he divided evenly between the two of them.

"Next time you pay," he said as he peeled open the wrapper of a chocolate frog.

"Of course," she said as she bit into a long strand of licorice that changed flavors from strawberry, to melon, and then to orange as she chewed on it.

They found a variety of things to converse about, and passed most of their journey comparing their worlds—Luna described math, and science, and geography, while Draco told her all about curses and magical creatures that she'd always wished were real.

"I drew a picture of a dragon, after I thought I saw one in the vault at Gringott's," she said. "It moves and everything. The man in the art store said that all pictures and paintings do."

Draco nodded. "You draw? Can I see?"

Luna fished around in her bag, pulling out the large leather-bound sketchpad and handing it to him. Fairies darted around bright green bushes and princesses waved from medieval towers. He stopped when he came to the bright green dragon, it's jaws snapping wildly and it's tail thrashing across the page.

"This is good—" he began, when the door to their cabin flew open and a young girl ran in. Luna recognized her as Ron's younger sister, Ginny.

"Have my brothers been through here?" she asked. "The twins?"

"Nobody's been in here," said Draco.

"Those idiots took my magazines. Said they were going to liberate all the pictures of Willis Young," she said in irritation. "_Willis Young!" _From the way she said this Luna assumed that this person was pretty important.

"I'll tell you if I see them," said Draco. Ginny paused and looked down at them.

"You're Malfoy, aren't you?" she said.

"Guilty as charged," he said.

"Hmph." She glanced down at the sketchbook. "So you draw? I didn't know wizards like _you _were artists."

"I'm not. She is." Ginny looked across the way and started when she saw Luna sitting there. She waved and the girl tentatively crossed the room, taking the sketchbook from Draco.

"These aren't bad," she said. "You really did them?"

"Yes," said Luna. "You really think they're good?"

"Pretty good," said Ginny. "I would have thought that you'd be more talented with…you know, other things." She handed it to Luna, unable to take her eyes off of her forehead.

She was about to say something else when she heard a boy shouting at her from further down the train. She apologized and took off after him.

Evening was coming. Draco suggested to Luna that she go ahead and change into her robes, so she excused herself and slipped on her uniform. She glanced at herself in mirror, surprised at how different she suddenly looked with the addition of her flowing black robes and hat.

They spoke little as the train made the last leg of the journey to Hogwarts. When it finally came to a complete stop Draco shook her hand, stated that he hoped to see her again soon, and went his way as the first years were separated from the rest of the school.

Hagrid was standing at the end of the platform, a lantern in hand to combat the murky fog that had settled down over them. "Firs' years over here, all firs years …come on then!"

He waved at Luna when he spotted her in the crowd. She waved back, following him as she fell in line with the others. She felt her skin crawled when she realized she was standing next to Eris, who somehow looked even haughtier and more imposing in her uniform. The girl smiled when she saw Luna and whispered to her.

"You didn't tell me who you were when we met," she said.

"You didn't introduce yourself either," said Luna. She tried her best to move away from the girl, but she caught Luna's arm and tucked in underneath her arm, smiling viciously.

"I think we could be great friends, Luna. If you'll just let me."

A response was on the tip of her tongue when they rounded the bend in the road and everybody gasped at their first sight of Hogwarts.

A black lake glimmered mysteriously under the fog, and beyond it a castle stood atop a high mountain, just barely visible. It looked as if it were the sort of place that one could get lost in for hours—even days, if they weren't careful, with its many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat," said Hagrid. Eris pulled Luna into a boat beside her, and they were immediately followed by two young boys who Luna thought looked unpleasant.

"These are friends of mine," said Eris. "Strode and Burke."

They boys grunted at her. Luna didn't like the look of them and said nothing, turning her attention back to the lake and ducking her head as they passed under a curtain of ivy that led them right up to the shore that faced the lake. As they bumped up against the shore Eris's grip on Luna was loosened. Jumping out of the boat she rejoined the crowd, standing on the other side of the girl she had met on the train so she couldn't be grabbed again.

"Everybody there all righ'?" said Hagrid. He led them up the stone path that led to the large wooden entrance and, with his heavy hand, knocked three times at the castle door.


	8. The Sorting Hat

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I'm trying not to rush this story...I can be a bit impatient :) but so far I think I'm doing well. But I'm definitely veering off of the canon next few chapters so uploads may start taking a little bit more time. That being said, I hope you like this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Eight: The Sorting Hat**

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in indigo robes stood there. She had a very stern face and to Luna seemed to scan every face in the group at once.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was enormous—the size of four of her flat. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches, the ceiling so high that it was indiscernible amongst the shadows, and before them an expansive marble staircase led into the upper floors.

Professor McGonagall led them across the stone floor. From a doorway to the right Luna could hear the excited buzz of hundreds of voices, the other students already arrived and settled down inside. But McGonagall bypassed this door and showed them through another, smaller door that led to an empty chamber that was just large enough to fit every one of them inside.

They crowded in, Luna grateful of the separation between Eris and herself as the girl was forced to glare at her from the other side of the room.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of you house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while anhy rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Her eyes lingered for a moment on a young boy, whose name Luna believed was Colin, as he nervously hid a camera inside his cloak, and on Ginny as she nervously bit off a fingernail. Luna anxiously went over everything she remembered from the books she had read, hoping to 'smarten herself up' as the Professor had said.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

She left the chamber. Luna felt her heart pounding.

"How do they sort us?" she asked Ginny.

"I'm not really sure. Each of my brothers has said something different. Ron told me that something chooses for us, though, and he's never been a very good liar. It doesn't sound too difficult."

"Oh." Luna felt a little disappointed. She had thought a test of some sort might be fun, difficult as it may be. Then again, she couldn't actually do any magic yet so perhaps thinking she would have to may have been a little unreasonable. She glanced around the room—most of the others looked absolutely terrified, and nobody was talking much. She understood though—no matter what was going to happen, her entire school career would depend on what the outcome was.

She was standing there debating with herself, so distracted that when the rest of the group jumped and screamed it took her several seconds to realize what was going on.

The faces of her fellow students were illuminated by about twenty pearly-white, transparent figures as they glided across the room, hardly noticing the scared first-years as they passed. They seemed to be in deep conversation.

"—no point in trying again. You must learn to accept your fate and move on."

"Friar, I appreciate your concern," said the ghost, who looked a bit like a knight. "But really, I am perfectly capabable of making my own…ho! I say, new students!"

The ghost he'd been speaking to, a round figure in monk's robes, smiled. "Ah! The Sorting begins soon, I suppose."

The students nodded. Luna suddenly thought of all the ghost stories she had read when she was younger, thinking as she watched the ghosts move along that this was far more exciting than that.

Professor McGonagall reappeared. "The Sorting Ceremony is about to start," she said. "Please form a line and follow me."

Luna stood behind Ginny, who was standing behind a pretty asian girl who was shaking so badly she thought she might pass out. They walked from the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double-doors into the Great Hall.

For weeks Luna had been trying to imagine what a place that taught magic could possibly look like. Nothing in her imagination could even compare to the sight that greeted her. Thousands and thousands of candles suspended in midair illuminated four long tables, at which sat the rest of the students. The table was set with shining plates and goblets that looked to be pure gold. At the front of the room the teachers were sitting at another long table. This is where Professor McGonagall led the first years, stopping them so that they were turned to face the other students with the teachers behind them. The faces of the other students were lit by the candlelight, resembling orbs, and here and there a silvery ghost punctuated the shadows.

Looking upward at the ceiling, where stars dotted the velvety blackness, she supposed that it had been bewitched to mirror the sky outside—if not for the magical nature of this place she would have thought that there was no ceiling at all. Her reverie was ended when Professor McGonagall returned with a small chair and a shabby looking wizard's hat that might have been as old as the castle itself.

Everybody was now staring at it, and following their lead Luna did also. The talking amongst the students had now stopped, and when the room was completely silent a rip near the brim opened wide and the hat began to sing.

"_There is no way of knowing,_

_Just what one has within,_

_By judging from their cloth,_

_Or the appearance of their skin,_

_For none was quite so modest,,_

_As when I first was made,_

_When now I do the sorting,_

_Of this magnificent brigade._

_Will I see it fit to place you with the boldest Gryffindor?_

_Where the bravest and the truest know what gallantry is for?_

_Or will it be in Hufflepuff I send you to your home?_

_Where the loyal do their greatest work, unafraid of toil?_

_Or will it be in Slytherin I send you to your glory?_

_Where real ones know what must be done to achieve one's end?_

_Or will it be in Ravenclaw that at last you find your place?_

_Where wisdom, wit and charm is second only to one's grace?_

_Soon you will know, soon you will see,_

_How remarkable I am,_

_You will find your forever home, _

_In my (nonexistent) hands!"_

The hall burst into applause as the hat finished. Luna felt somewhat strange—the hat was going to look into her head it seemed. She was a little worried about what exactly it may find there. Professor McGonagall was already looking down at a long sheet of parchment, and before Luna had two seconds to think was saying, "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the chair to be sorted. First, Aarons, Robert!"

A freckled boy with messy blonde hair got out of line and half tripped over his shoelaces on his way to the chair. Slipping the hat on, he sat down. Only a moment passed before –

"GRYFFINDOR!"

One of the tables began to roar and the boy ran down sit at the Gryffindor table. Luna could see Harry and Ron seated not too far from where the boy sat down.

"Bennet, Mary!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the girl took her seat at another table.

"Burke, Patrick!" A boy stepped out of line from where he stood next to Eris. He was rather tall and thin, with a face that looked as if it were fixed in a permanent scowl. The moment the hat touched his head it cried out "SLYTHERIN!" and he made his way down to the table.

"Burns, Wilhelmina!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

A girl with curly brown hair went on down to the Ravenclaw table. Luna searched the students that were seated there, finding Draco at the very end with several empty seats nearby. She felt a little sorry for him, seeing the unpleasant look on his face.

"Callahan, Gregory," also became a Gryffindor, followed into the same house soon after by, "Creevy, Colin," who almost fell on his way to the table.

"Ellis, Bradley," became yet another Slytherin, though Luna thought that it had taken a bit longer for him to decide which house he should be in. She wondered if perhaps sometimes it was harder for the hat to make a decision—of some people should belong in more than one house, or didn't really belong in any house at all.

She wondered suddenly what would happen if the hat thought she should be put in to more than one house—if it was too hard to decide and she ended up in the wrong place? In the middle of these thoughts she heard McGonagall call out, "Lestrange, Eris!"

Immediately a hush went over the room. Draco was paying keen attention now, and to her surprise Luna saw that several at the Gryffindor table were staring at the girl. Eris coolly took a seat in the chair. The hat had barely touched the top of her head when it called out, "Slytherin!" Looking rather pleased with herself, Eris took her seat at the cheering table. There wasn't a peep from the other tables.

"Lovegood, Luna." She jolted at hearing her name. As she stepped forward the silence that had fallen when Eris was called was immediately broken as whispers broke out from every corner of the hall.

"_Lovegood, _did she say?

"_The _Luna Lovegood?"

The last thing Luna saw before the hat was placed on her head was a hall full of people leaning forward and trying to get a good look at her. Then everything was black as she stared at the inside of the hat.

"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear. "One of the harder minds I've had to look into, lately. Definitely brave, and not afraid to work…ah, and smart as a whip too. You definitely wish to prove that you belong here…you like knowing things that others don't. Mmm…but you don't just want to know things do you? You want to do something great…don't you?"

"I don't want to be in Slytherin," she whispered almost to herself.

"You don't?" said the voice. "And why not? Certainly it would help you to greatness—no? Well, if you've decided—better be RAVENCLAW!"

The last word was said aloud rather than just inside her head. As she took off the hat the hall had erupted in thunderous applause. Her legs were shaking, but not because of the sorting. She had been fairly certain about halfway through she would be put in Ravenclaw rather than Slytherin—but the cheer she was getting was twice as loud as anybody else had gotten. She made her way to the end of the table and took the seat next to Draco, eliciting looks of surprise from the others.

A slender girl leaned over and whispered, "You had better sit up here with us."

Luna shook her head. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Draco was grinning a little.

"I don't know if you're going to make yourself less popular or turn me into the next Harry Potter by sitting here," said Draco in a low voice.

"Either way is fine with me," said Luna. Her eyes were now drawn to the table where the teachers were sitting. Hagrid smiled at her from the far end of the table and she gave him a small wave back. And at the very center was a man who could be no other than Albus Dumbledore. He was watching the proceedings with mild interest, smiling serenely. Near to him was Professor Snape, the man she had seen at the Leaky Cauldron. He was fidgeting as if he had somewhere far more important to be.

The last person to be sorted was the girl from the train. The hat was placed on her head—nearby Luna could hear her brother making space for her at the Gryffindor table. It did not take long for the hat to declare her a "GRYFFINDOR!" and she marched down to take her spot at that table.

Up at the great table, Albus Dumbledore stood. He was beaming now, applauding them as if they were the ones, and not he, who were important.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I'd like to tell you how pleased I am to see you all. So you should know that I am VERY pleased to see you all!"

The students themselves applauded this, a pair of redheaded twins that Luna could safely assume were Ginny's brothers leading a round of "Three cheers for Dumbledore!"

"Thank you! And your praise is wonderfully refreshing," said Dumbledore. "Perhaps I may sleep better knowing I am in your graces."

"He's mad," said Draco.

"And is there anything wrong with being mad?" said Luna.

"Not at all, if you don't mind other people."

Resolving that she would try hard not to, she began piling onto her plate the food that had appeared before her, taking a bit of everything that she didn't recognize. It was all delicious, though she still hadn't figured out what half of it was by the time she felt completely full.

A beautiful female ghost was sitting near to them, looking completely disinterested. After a while the ghost took note of Draco. "Are you well, Mister Malfoy?" she asked. "I see you have a new friend."

"My name—"

"You don't have to tell me, of course," she said. "I know exactly who you are. I do think it's rather silly to judge people because of who their parents are, rather than on their own merits, don't you?"

"My father is in prison," said Draco, "so of course I agree," he said. They spoke of lighter things for the rest of the meal—Luna finally learned exactly what Quidditch was, and Luna told him about the subjects she had studied in muggle school. (Arithmatic? Oh, is that something like arithmancy?)

As dessert appeared, they learned a little more about the people around them. "My mother met my dad abroad," said Willa Burns. "She's a muggle, he's not, but they're a bit lax on marrying muggles in America," she said. "Though there was a bit of a row the first time she brought him home for dinner. I swear, my grandparents think America's crawling with witches and wizards to this day."

One of the first things she noticed what that a large part of the conversation around her table concerned lessons and theories. "Professor Snape teaches sleeping potions this year," an older girl was saying to the boy beside her. "I've heard his method is a bit different than the conventional way of doing it. I've been thinking I'll do it both ways—"

Another group of girls was discussing glamours, which Luna understood after a few moments to be charms to enhanceone's beauty.

She was listening to these conversations, speaking to the students who made their way from the other end of the table to the empty spots around her and Draco (out of curiosity she supposed). By the time the last of the desserts had disappeared the entire student body was in a sort of stupor. Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet and the chatter faded away.

"Ahem—now that we have replenished ourselves it is time for a few start-of-term notices.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few or our older students would do well to remember that as well."

His eyes went immediately to the Gryffindor table, where Luna saw Harry and Ron grinning sheepishly at one another.

"Mr. Filch would also like to state, for the eleventh year in a row, that magic is not to be used in the corridors between classes, and would like to add that a revised list of prohibited items has been posted in his office should anybody care to review it.

Quidditch trials will be held the second week of term. Those that are interested should speak to Madam Hooch. Given the circumstances that led to Mr. Potter joining the Gryffindor team last year, the rules have been amended to allow first years to audition for their house teams although I will note that the prior rule against first years keeping a broom is still in effect.

"And one final note," he said. His tone of voice had changed and the restless murmurings died down once again. "Last year, the third-floor corridor on the right hand side was placed off-limits. It will remain as such this semester to all those who do not wish to die a very painful death."

"They're strict here, aren't they?" said Luna mildly.

Draco laughed. "There's been rumors flying around for ages about what they've got hidden in there. Whatever it is, it must be dangerous," he said.

The evening was capped by the singing of the school song, which was unlike anything Luna had ever experienced before, after which the house prefects led them all to their new homes.

Ravenclaw was housed in one of the highest towers in the castle. Their prefect, a slender girl named Elizabeth Dermott, stopped at the entrance.

"To enter the tower you must answer a riddle or question. If you cannot reason it yourself you will wait until another answers it, and therefore learn."

She turned then to the entrance. "When in a wizard's life is he most wise?" came the voice.

Elizabeth turned to the first years. "Does anybody want to answer it?"

"When he graduates?" said one. The door remained silent. "When they become a parent?" asked a diminutive girl.

"No," said the door, "for that is when a wizard realizes he knows the least," it said.

"Then the wisest a wizard can ever be is when he realizes that he doesn't know anything," said Luna.

Everybody turned to stare at her. "Well reasoned," said the door. They entered into an elegantly decorated common room, in which a tall statue of a beautiful woman stared down at them. Luna was about to ask who it was but when she tried to speak her voice was caught in a giant yawn.

They were led off and up some stairs to a room containing four beds. Besides Willa Burns her roommates were a young girl named Amanda Crawford and Mai Chang.

Luna wanted to speak to them a little, but the moment she laid down she immediately fell asleep.

In her dreams, she saw the green flash of light, and was surrounded by everybody she knew asking her impossible questions. Her uncle was there, shaking his head and telling her that she would die if she didn't answer them right—and then Professor McGonagall was asking her to name every spell in her textbook and she couldn't even find her wand…

She shook herself awake, staring out into the darkness. Her heart jumped when something moved from behind the curtain of her bed and she started to go after it, but suddenly every part of her felt heavy and she fell back into the darkness, not to remember anything come morning.


	9. The Potions Mistress

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **This is the last of the chapters I have fully written, and probably the last of the chapters that will have very many bits and pieces taken directly from the book...so in other words, I'm not exactly sure how long it will be before I upload again...probably a few weeks or so unless the muses smack me in the face with something so obvious I HAVE to write it. I'm a college art student with quite a few projects under my belt so it could go either way...I could get so overwhelmed with that stuff I neglect my hobby, or I could get so burdened by that stuff I run to my little fanfiction bubble to get away from it all. So I'm done rambling....enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Nine: The Potions Mistress**

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the Malfoy kid."

"The blonde girl?"

"Did you see her face?"

"Did you see her scar?"

Whispers followed Luna from the moment she left her dormitory the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at her, or doubled back to pass her in the corridors again, staring. The only thing that kept Luna from retreating to her room was the promise of having her very first lessons in magic.

If Draco hadn't proven to be a reliable guide, Luna thought that she would never have gotten to her classes on time. There were one-hundred and forty two staircases, each different in its own way and most with some trick that one had to remember if they didn't want to spend an hour lost somewhere they shouldn't be. A part of her didn't think she would have minded—there was so much to see that she thought she'd never explore it all even if she had seven years to spend there.

Roaming the halls with the most unpopular boy in Ravenclaw seemed to have other advantages, as well. Quite a few students who otherwise might have stopped her in the hall quickly passed her by on seeing her companion, and although the other ghosts would cheerfully greet the both of them Peeves the Poltergeist seemed to have a strange respect for the boy and would, for the most part, find another victim if he saw them coming his way.

He also taught Luna how best to avoid the caretaker, Argus Filch. Of all the people at Hogwarts she had met so far, Filch had so far proven to be the most unpleasant. On her first morning there they had passed him by as he threatened a pair of scared-looking first years. Draco explained that the door they were standing in front of was the entrance to the forbidden third-floor corridor and they had probably gotten lost and tried to enter. "Happens all the time," he said. "Don't worry, one of the professors will pass along and rescue them."

Luna had no intention of being a rule-breaker at school. If she had, then she might have been greatly worried not only by Filch but by his cat, a scrawny creature that patrolled the hallways for her master. But even amongst the best students there was no one who could tolerate Filch.

Classes, she discovered, were much more involved than she'd expected—even more so than those at her muggle school, and she'd been an advanced student. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

History of Magic was easily the most boring class she attended. The teacher was a ghost, which might have made things more interesting, but his lecture hadn't changed at all since the day he'd died and got up the next morning to teach, anyway. She figured she could probably read the textbook in her off time, anyway, and spent most of her lectures doodling on her parchment.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Luna's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was again different. Luna liked her, and was pretty certain that underneath her stern exterior she could be quite impressive. On the first day of class she gave them a stern lecture.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed a large vase into a brightly colored parrot and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking notes for over an hour they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Willa Burns and Luna had been able to make much of a difference to their matches; Willa's had gone silver and pointy, and Luna's had gotten very long and had a metallic blue sheen to it—when asked, she'd had to explain that in her mind she'd been picturing her aunt's knitting needles, which Professor McGonagall had explained was _not _quite what she'd wanted although the smile she gave her showed that perhaps she was still a little impressed.

The class everyone had been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Professor Snape was certainly not one to disappoint. He was rather imposing, reminding Luna of a vampire as he stood at the head of the darkened room. On their first day they put their wands and books away and he lectured them for the entire period on why it was necessary to learn how to defend oneself against the darker magic. It was strongly suggested by Professor Snape that he had done quite a bit of dark wizard hunting in his day, which Luna might not have believed if it didn't seem to her that she wouldn't be surprised to find he was well acquainted with some of the dark arts himself.

It made her feel a little strange that he looked directly at her while discussing the unpredictable nature of dark curses and spells—but apart from that moment he didn't seem to impart any special attention on her, other than asking her if she was finding Mr. Malfoy a pleasant companion and another time giving her five house points for correctly naming the most common and effective spell used in wizard dueling (_Expelliarmus)._

Although Luna was progressing quite quickly in her studies, she was relieved to find that she got no particular attention for this as it was a common trait of her house. But she also learned that there were students from other houses who also achieved very high marks, oftentimes competing for top spots in their classes. A second-year Gryffindor was pointed out to her, a frizzy-haired girl walking down the corridor talking to herself.

"That's Hermione Granger," Draco had said. "Probably the smartest in our year."

"Is she very nice?"

"I suppose so. Doesn't really have much to say to anyone, though I've heard her snap at Potter and Weasley on occasion."

This was said over breakfast on Friday as Luna buttered a piece of toast. She glanced over to where Harry and Ron were sitting with Ron's twin brothers—from the snippets of conversation she could overhear it seemed they were back on a Quidditch kick.

She pulled her schedule from her bag and laid it out on the table. "This is what I have today," she said. "Double potions with the Gryffindors. What is Professor Robin like?"

Draco mulled it over for a moment. "She's new this year. I've only had one class with her but she seems fair enough. Likes Potter well enough but she can be forgiven for that," he said.

Just that moment the mail arrived. Luna found it to be her favorite part of the morning, and often craned her neck up to watch the owls swooping in to find their owners and deliver their packages.

Hermes usually dropped in every morning just to see her, though he hadn't yet brought her anything. But this time he dropped a note onto the table, narrowly missing the marmalade before landing on her shoulder to nibble at her hair with his beak and nip up the piece of toast she gave him. She tore open the letter.

_Dear Luna,_

_I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I've invited Harry Potter too, and you can bring whoever else you'd like. I want to hear all about your first week. Send an answer back with Hedwig._

_Hagrid_

She looked over her shoulder, seeing that Harry was also looking over a letter. She turned away quickly when he glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Draco?"

But before she could ask he was shaking his head. "I'm sorry, I don't want to go anywhere near Potter."

She knew there was no point in pressing the issue further, so she gathered her things and went off to class.

Potions lessons took place down in the dungeons. There was a pleasant fire warming the room, and Luna got the feeling that she was in somebody's kitchen. Professor Robin was wearing butter-yellow robes, her long hair bound back. She smiled at them as she took roll, pausing when she reached Luna's name.

"And I'm very pleased to see that we have Luna Lovegood joining us. Are you finding life pleasant here at Hogwarts?"

Luna wanted to hide—it was the most overt display of her fame she'd encountered yet. She nodded and thankfully Robin moved on. There was something about the way she moved that reminded Luna a little of a muggle movie she'd seen where a bunch of women were turned into robots.

"This class will be about the craft of potionmaking. There are some that would treat it as an exact science, but I prefer to take a bit of a…kitchen witch approach to it. A pinch of this, a pinch of that…" she waved her hand. Luna sat back in her seat, a little disappointed. She had somehow pictured potions as being something darker, creepier…bubbling cauldrons and smoky dungeons. "Of course, wands are not used in this classroom. I expect all of you will find this a pleasant enough experience, though many times there are those who just don't have a _knack _for this sort of thing…"

They spent the rest of the lesson making a very basic potion, which was easy enough that nobody in the room had any real difficulty with it. Luna and Ginny were paired together, and while they waited for their potion to finish simmering Ginny told her all about her brothers, the eldest two of which had already left school and found jobs in the wizarding world.

At five to three she left the castle and made her way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.

When she knocked she heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang—back!"

Hagrid's eye appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.

"Hang on," he said, "Back, Fang! Take a hold of him there!"

He pulled the door open just enough to let Luna slip in.

There was only one room inside. At a rough wooden table Harry and Ron were holding on to a massive black boarhound, trying not to dislodge the cracked tea set on the table. There were hams and pheasants hanging from the ceiling, and a massive bed in the corner.

"Have a seat," said Hagrid, as the boys let go of Fang. The dog bounded over and licked her in the face before she could get settled onto the chair she'd been offered.

"So yeh've met?" he asked.

"Just for a minute, on the train," said Luna.

"Well, this is Harry Potter. Youngest player on a house team in a century," he said with a proud nod. "Parents were good friends of mine."

"And you're Ginny's brother," said Luna. "We were talking about you during class."

Ron flushed bright red. "Er…" he stammered, taking a bite of the rock hard cakes Hagrid had laid out when it didn't seem that he could think of anything to say.

They discussed their first week of classes. Luna listened to the boys' stories intently—they had gotten on the bad side of Filch more than once, and she couldn't help but laugh when they described the way they'd spent an entire hour evading him through the castle before they found their way back to their common room.

Harry had a few words to say about Snape, too. "He's one of my mum's oldest friends," he said. "So I grew up with him coming and going. My dad and godfather have had a hard time with that," he said with a grin.

"He doesn't seem very bad," she said.

Ron snorted, but Harry only grinned. "Know-it-alls always get by in his classes," he said. "That Granger girl is one of his favorites, and even though he's head of Slytherin he always gets on well with the Ravenclaws."

"He's Malfoy's godfather, you know," said Harry casually.

Luna perked up. "Really?" she said. "Draco never said anything."

"Mum says Snape has been trying to get Malfoy's mother to let him live with him for years now," said Harry.

"No, 'nuff gossip," said Hagrid. "Ron, tell me 'bout your brother Charlie? He still workin' with dragons?"

While Ron told Hagrid all about his brother, Luna noticed the newspaper clipping on the table.

Harry glanced at her as she pulled it over, reading the headline after glancing at the nervous looking man in the accompanying photograph.

**HOGWARTS PROFESSOR STILL ON THE RUN**

_There have been several new leads on the whereabouts of one Quirinus Quirrell, who until last February was employed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts. _

_An investigation was launched during the winter break when it was discovered that Quirrell had not only broken into areas of Hogwarts expressly forbidden to any but the Headmaster but was also responsible for the attempted break-in at Gringott's bank._

_The new information is confidential, but authorities are confident that Quirrel will be apprehended soon_

"This man was here last year?" she said.

All three of them turned to look at her.

"Old news," said Hagrid, taking it from her.

But when they left the hut, Harry and Ron stopped her. "There were some weird rumors about that guy after he left," said Harry. "Rumors that he was working for somebody. Somebody _major," _he emphasized.

Luna watched after them as they made their way to the castle. Strangely, she felt that Harry had been warning her about something, though she couldn't put a finger on either that or the fact that something about the article gave her goosebumps.

Making her way up to the castle for dinner, she thought about what had happened in Hagrid's cabin. Was Draco really Snape's godson? If so, she wondered why he hadn't told her. And what was in Hogwarts that some strange man had been trying to retrieve? Something that hadmade him a wanted criminal...


	10. The Dueling Club

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **There's one particular bit in this chapter that is a bit of a nod to something important that happens in the canon. I'm going to do a lot of these, they won't be particularly important to this story, but they're there for those who pay attention….so pay attention!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Ten: The Dueling Club**

Luna had begun to wonder if there would ever be an end to the attention she got from her fellow classmates when she found that there was one thing at the school that interested them even more. Fully prepared for the stares, the awkward questions, and just about everything else that had followed her from the moment she set foot in Hogwarts, she was a little surprised to enter her common room to see a crowd gathered around the bulletin board.

Edging in to see what had caught their attention, she saw a boldfaced notice in blue and gold.

**Quidditch Tryouts Wednesday!**

**All second years and up welcome, first years by special invitation.**

**Meet at the Quidditch pitch at three o'clock.**

**Positions Available: Seeker, 2 Chasers, 1 Beater**

The notice only held her attention for a moment, and only because she was getting more and more interested in seeing a match herself. But her first flying lesson had not gone well—Madam Hooch had warned her over and over again that she wasn't attentive enough.

Luna herself thought that the only real problem had been that, once in the air, she liked gliding along well enough that she wasn't particularly interested in flying.

But there was a second notice tacked underneath the first that _did _get her attention.

**Dueling Club Begins Thursday**

**Contact Professor Snape for more information.**

"What's the dueling club?" she asked Parvati Patil, a second-year girl who had wandered close.

"Oh," she said dismissively. "Just about what it sounds like. A bunch of people who get around with Professor Snape and lob spells at each other.

She was reminded of the old movies that Uncle Henry watched sometimes, with old west gunslingers and aristocrats throwing foreign words at each other while they danced around with swords. She wondered if wizard duels were anything like that, and tried to picture standing opposite Eris Lestrange. The idea of knocking her down with a toe-twisting curse or a bat-bogie hex wasn't entirely disagreeable.

By the time Thursday had come around, she'd had time to think about the Dueling Club. The more she considered the idea the more fun it seemed like it could be, although a niggling voice in the back of her head told her that Uncle Henry would probably have a fit if he found out she was willingly putting herself in the line of curses from her fellow students (though she sincerely doubted any first year could do any real harm).

So at the end of the class she took her time gathering her things, waiting until the room was cleared out, and finally made her way to Snape's desk.

"Sir?"

He paused, glancing down his hooked nose at her. "Questions about the homework, Miss Lovegood?"

"No, sir." She stood up straight, holding her hands behind her back. "I wanted to know if maybe I could join the Dueling Club."

"The Dueling Club?" he raised an eyebrow, setting down the stack of parchment he was straightening. "You have an interest in the intricate, elegant ritual of the Wizard's Duel? I do not tolerate silly wand-waving in my club, Miss Lovegood."

"I know that." Snape looked her up and down, giving Luna the impression that he was measuring her worth. He finally nodded.

"Very well. We are meeting in the Great Hall in less than an hour." He swept away, cloak billowing behind him. Luna threw her bag over her shoulder and, before heading to the Great Hall, made her way back to the Ravenclaw common room to find Draco.

He was sitting at a table by himself with his Transfiguration homework spread out around him. "Hey," he said without looking up, turning the page in his textbook.

"Do you have to finish that tonight?" she asked.

"No, it's not due until Monday." He looked up at her. "What's going on?"

"I'm going to Snape's dueling club," she said. "Are you going?"

He shook his head. "I don't think so," he said.

"Why not?" she asked.

Draco paused, and after a moment set down his quill. Luna could tell that he was about to speak so she didn't say anything else, waiting until he had time to ruminate before he finally figured out what it was he was going to say.

"I did last year, a couple of times," he said. "Professor Snape convinced me that I should. But nobody else wanted me there. Everybody else refused to partner me in a duel, even when Snape tried to make them. Potter was the worst."

"The worst?" Luna tried to imagine Harry being horrible and couldn't. "Why? What happened?"

"Nothing extraordinary. He accused me of cheating and we ended up pounding on each other for a minute until Snape pulled us apart. Then both of us were banned."

"Ah," said Luna, frowning. She really had been hoping that Draco might go with her. Not that she was afraid, particularly, but it didn't hurt that he was as intimidating to the other students as she was popular. People found it harder to ask awkward questions of her with Draco Malfoy breathing down their necks.

"Just why do you and Harry hate each other anyway?" she asked after a moment. "I've talked to him. He doesn't seem that bad."

"It's a long story," said Draco. Code for, _it's really not that long a story but I really don't feel like telling you about it. _But she couldn't help but feel like she was getting just a bit tired of all the mystery.

"Is it because Professor Snape is your godfather?"

His ice-blue eyes locked on to hers. "Who told you that?" he asked, a bit more sharply than she was used to. Then he sighed, throwing back down the quill that he had scarcely picked up. "Potter did, didn't he? Lousy git. Probably thinks he's throwing you off me with a little piece of information like that."

"What's wrong with Snape being your godfather?" she asked. "I think he's brilliant. A bit cold, and I do wish that he'd wash his hair because he might be a bit more handsome…"

Draco looked a little relieved. He leaned in toward her, glancing around the room to see if any of the others breezing in and out had paid any attention to their conversation. Seeing that they were moderately alone, he said, "Well, can you promise me you won't go around talking about this too much?" Luna told him that of course she could. "Well," he said, "Back in school, Harry's dad and his friends were a bit nasty to Snape. Things have cooled off between him and Harry's dad because he's really good friends with Harry's mum, but his dad's friend—Harry's godfather—is the worst kind of git you could possibly imagine."

"So what?" said Luna. "You hate Harry because his godfather's a jerk?"

"Not exactly. My godfather and his godfather hate each other, so we've always hated each other," finished Draco.

Luna blinked her owlish eyes, half-waiting as if she expected the story wasn't over. But he didn't continue, and when she saw that his story was finished she reached out and gave him a sharp tap on the shoulder.

"Ow!"

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she said airily. "Somebody tried to kill me when I was a baby and you hate Harry because his godfather is a jerk. Your godfather is a jerk too. Anyway, were you really cheating when you got into that fight at the dueling club?"

Draco's lip twitched—it looked as if he were about to laugh. "Perhaps," he said.

"Then it sounds to me like you deserved it. Come on, you're going." She threw his things together and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him after her until he gave up and followed her on his own, down to the great hall, where as they entered Snape glanced their way, saying nothing.

There were students there from all the houses, of every age. Willa Burns and Mai Chang were huddled together on one side of the room with Mai's older sister Cho, a pretty third-year Ravenclaw whom Luna had met on a couple of occasions. She also recognized the twin sister of the girl she had talked to earlier, a Gryffindor, and Ginny's third-year twin brothers, Fred and George, who were the most notorious pranksters at Hogwarts (as well as popular members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team). Ginny was there too, although once she saw Draco she did little more than wave at Luna from where she stood.

"If we are all done socializing, it is time to begin." Everybody went silent when Snape spoke, turning their attention to where he stood. "We will spend the first half of the year learning spells, techniques, and of course the necessary traditions of the Wizard's Duel. In the second half of the semester we will begin holding competitions each meeting, which will culminate in a match to be held before the Grand Tournament in Hogsmeade."

He spent the next half-hour lecturing them. Luna noticed that the students slipped into a daze, paid rapt attention or, in the case of one frizzy-haired Gryffindor girl, took rapt notes.

Finishing, he instructed them to partner with a member of their own year. Willa and Mai immediately got together, and before she could ask Ginny, the Creevey boy had asked her to partner with him.

"Can Draco and I be partners sir?" asked Luna as Snape came around.

"He is a second year, and far more advanced…"

"Sir? I'd like to partner with Luna."

This statement surprised everybody, including Luna herself. She smiled as Snape dismissed the both of them and moved along.

"Fourth-years and above may take that side of the room and practice on their own. First, second, and third years, please remain over here." There was a shuffle as the students separated off. When they had settled again (and a sound barrier had been placed between the two parties so that Snape could speak without being interrupted) the door opened and Professor Robin slipped in.

"There you are," he said. "I had hoped you would get here sooner."

"I was delayed," she said cheerfully, bouncing over to where Snape stood. "But I'm so very looking forward to this!"

"And I am so very glad," said Snape dryly.

"Did he just make a joke?" Luna whispered to Draco.

"Must be a first."

"I will be doing a basic demonstration with Professor Robin, beginning as always with the most simple and effective spell in a duel. Can anybody tell me what that is?"

The frizzy-haired girl's hand went straight up in the air. "Expelliarmus, the disarming spell, sir," she said.

"That is correct. If everybody would stand across from their partner and do as I say, we will begin."

He proceeded to give them a brief demonstration, plucking Robin's wand neatly from her hand and having it sail right into his own.

"All right, I'll go first. Once I've got it I can help you," said Draco. For the next twenty minutes she simply stood there holding her wand, feeling it wiggle in her hand but not doing much else. The first person to do it properly was the same girl who had answered Snape's question, who Luna learned was named Hermione Granger.

Draco was not far after. Luna had grown a little bored when all of a sudden she felt her wand go sailing out of her hand. It flew several feet, landing far to the left of him. He retrieved it for her, and after only a few more attempts he was easily retrieving it from her. Snape passed by, nodding in approval.

"All right, Luna, your turn."

"Okay." She bit her lip, imagining the way the wand would sail straight from his hand and into hers. "Expelliarmus!"

Immediately his wand jumped from his hand and sailed neatly to her.

If Snape hadn't already been watching, he would have noticed something was wrong from the way that at least half a dozen turned to stare at her. "Great!" said Draco, reaching out for his wand.

She did it again, and again, until a third time she said it a bit more forcefully and at least three people around her lost their wands as well, as they came clattering in Luna's direction.

"When did you learn this spell?" said Snape sharply, finally coming back to her.

"A few moments ago, I suppose," she said. "I'm sorry if I'm not doing it right, sir."

"You're doing it a little too well," he said. Luna couldn't read the expression on his face—whether he was pleased or displeased, she could not say. "Mister Malfoy, come with us over here."

They adjourned to a quieter part of the room, leaving Robin to watch over the others as they returned to their practice. "I'd like you to repeat after me, Miss Lovegood. We are going to attempt a few more spells…if that is acceptable with you, Mister Malfoy?"

Draco nodded, and following Snape's lead she performed spell after spell. Each time something different happened to him—she felt a little guilty when bats began erupting from his nose, making him double over until Snape himself righted him again.

"Extraordinary, Miss Lovegood," he said. "You are a singular young witch. I wonder…yes, perhaps it might be possible. Please visit me tomorrow afternoon, I have some matters I would like to discuss with you."

*****

"A tournament?" Luna was staring in shock at Professor Snape.

"Yes. It began about nine years ago or so—or was reinstated, I might say. Usually the Headmaster does not permit students your age to attend but I think that given your unusual celebrity…it would not be wholly impossible."

She reread the scroll that he had handed her. It was for a dueling tournament to be held in Hogsmeade, the small village outside of the castle. There would be students there from other schools—from as far away as America, Snape had said, and she could hardly even imagine meeting somebody from so far away.

"I'll do it," she said.

When Draco heard about this he seemed more excited than Luna had ever seen him get about anything.

"This trumps Harry making the house team by a long shot!" he said.

"Oh, you're still on that?" said Luna. "I really don't think it's nearly as exciting as you're making it out to be. Anyway, the contest is in February so I'll be going to the club meetings as well as working with Snape and some of the older students. He wants you to come, so I have somebody to practice on."

"Good to know I'm needed for something," he scoffed.

"You're my friend, too," said Luna, rolling her eyes. "I'd like you there."

"Oh. Right." He was quiet, and when Luna looked back at him she saw that he was blushing bright pink.

They were sitting in the dimly lit library. Luna realized as she saw people's renewed interest in her just what her little show in the dueling club had cost her. People seemed, more than ever, to be of the notion that she was somehow more special than the rest of them. Her skin tingled a little bit—she almost wished that she could fade away into the books.

"You don't think that they're going to act like that around me all the time, do you?" she whispered.

"No," said Draco, finally getting his voice back. "It's going to get worse."


	11. The Serpent in the Shadows

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **Thanks for the reviews and the adds, yet again! Luna is one of my favorite characters (obviously) so it's fun to not only predict her character had things been...different...but to find ways to incorporate a slightly more lucid Luna into the one we're used to.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Eleven: The Serpent in the Shadows  
**

Ginny Weasley stretched out in a soft patch of grass at the side of the lake, watching a group of second-year boys play with a fluttering golden snitch. Luna sat cross-legged beside her, arms wrapped around her knees. "That's Neville Longbottom?" she said, gesturing at a stocky boy with dark hair.

"Yeah…" Ginny bit her lip, glancing over her shoulder at Luna. "Hey, listen…do you think you can keep a secret?"

Luna had never really had girl friends before. Not that she had ever had many friends to begin with. But ever since she had arrived at Hogwarts it seemed that Draco Malfoy was the only person she could talk to. It had been something of a surprise to be invited over to the lake by Ginny.

"I suppose if it's worth keeping," she said. Ginny frowned for a moment.

"This one is really worth keeping. Can you promise?"

Luna nodded. Ginny turned back to the boys. "I think Harry Potter is really cute," she said, giggling.

"Oh," said Luna. She had expected something more earth-shattering.

"Who do you like?" said Ginny. She flipped over so that she was looking at Luna. "Is it Draco? You're always with him. Is he your boyfriend?"

"What?" Luna shook her head. "No. Not at all. That's kind of gross, actually."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever," she said.

It was the day of Halloween, and Luna had been so busy that she could hardly believe the time had flown by so fast. Her time had been divided between homework, and dueling, and occasionally going down to the Quidditch pitch to watch the games. She decided after her first match that it was much more fun to be a spectator than to ever actually participate in it.

They watched for a little while longer, listening to the boys cheer and jeer one another, (and in Ginny's case making fun of her brother for falling flat on his face). As it grew darker, they packed up their things.

"Would you like to visit Hagrid with me? He wrote to ask me to visit before the feast," said Luna.

Ginny looked like she was about to decline, when suddenly she shrugged. "Sure," she said. "He's kind of scary looking but he doesn't seem to bother you. Or Harry," she said, her cheeks going pink.

Together they went up the grassy incline that led to his hut. Luna knocked on the door and inside they heard Fang go wild. She waited a few moments and nobody answered, then knocked again. This time the door opened a crack and a giant eye appeared in the space.

"Is that Ginny Weasley?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"Y-yes, sir," she said.

Hagrid made a noise, as if he'd decided she was all right, and opened the door just wide enough for the two of them to get inside before he slammed it closed behind them.

"I'd of preferred you came alone, but I en't gonna worry 'bout that none. Not a Weasley can't be trusted, 'cept for maybe that Percy. If yeh'll pardon me sayin' that, Ginny."

"Not at all," she said.

"Well, I asked you here because I need a little help from you," he said. "I…well, I got a little present."

"A present?" said Luna. She was about to ask what _kind _of present when she followed his gaze to the fireplace. There, nestled in the goals, was a gleaming egg. "Is that a dragon egg?" she asked.

"A dragonette," he corrected, puffing out his chest importantly. "New breed. Aren't nearly as vicious as a full-size dragon. Of course a man got his leg nipped off an' the Ministry hasn't decided…"

"Where did you get it?" Luna was still looking at the egg. It was about the size of a football and the color of polished stone. In her mind she pictured Hagrid plucking it from the nest of a monstrous dragon—dragonette—whatever it was, and trying to keep his massive frame unseen as he made his escape.

"Er…like I said, it were a present," he said.

"From who?" asked Ginny.

"I ain't at liberty ter say," he replied.

"So we get to help take care of it?" she said.

"Yeh sure are, s'long as…well, yeh know, we may want ter keep it mum 'til the legal situation is all worked out. Harry's helpin', and yer brother Ginny, so if yeh don' want ter help…"

"Of course I want to help, I've never gotten to take care of a dragon before. Or anything like that."

They left the cabin a little while later. "Where do you think it came from?" asked Ginny. "Was it really a gift?"

"I don't know," said Luna. "I hope that he doesn't get in trouble. I wonder where Draco is? He'd help too, if he knew."

"You're really going to tell him?" Ginny stopped dead. "That would be a really bad idea."

"What?" Luna crossed her arms over her chest defensively. She wasn't about to let anybody start saying anything about her best friend.

"If Draco knew…"

"If I knew what?" They both turned. They had reached the edge of the lake, and neither of them had seen Draco approaching them.

"Nothing," said Ginny with a sniff. "Come on, Luna. You can explain things to him later."

"Why not now?" said Luna.

"I…I…"

"Bloody Weasleys," said Draco with a sneer. "That's what always happens with poor wizard families."

"Draco!" Luna gasped. She didn't think she'd ever heard him say anything so horrible before.

She turned to say something to Ginny, but she was already running down toward the castle. Luna growled at Draco and gave him as nasty a look as she could muster up before marching off, not stopping until she was securely in her room with the curtain closed around her bed.

Was Draco really as bad as everybody had been telling her? She wouldn't have thought so if she hadn't heard what he'd said. But if he really thought less of the Weasleys because they didn't have any money then what would he have thought of her back when she was living with the Frys? And besides that, they had been a muggle and a squib.

"Luna?" Mai Chang called out. "Draco's downstairs. He said he wants to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk to him," she said.

"He said he was going to wait until you came down. Did you two have a fight?"

The curtain parted and Mai stuck her head inside. Luna shook her head glumly. "No. Well, maybe. I don't know. He was kind of a jerk to Ginny Weasley and it made me mad."

"That's all?" Mai frowned and pulled her head back out. Luna stayed there for an hour, until it was close to dinnertime. She might have skipped it if it wasn't Halloween—but it being her first at the school, and having heard it was something of a big deal, she decided to suck it up and head downstairs.

When she reached the common room Draco was waiting for her. She didn't say a word to him as she sailed by—across the room she heard a handful of girls snicker.

"Luna, wait…"

"I don't really want to talk to you right now," she said, stepping out into the hall.

"Give it a rest, Malfoy, she's much too good for you," said Cho, Mai's older sister. Luna felt a little bad, but wasn't about to turn around and talk to him. Not just yet anyway. She heard him kick the door as it closed on him, and with a sigh she kept on walking.

The Great Hall was the most beautiful she'd seen it since the term began. The candles had been replaced by hundreds of miniature pumpkins carved into Jack-o-Lanterns, all of them floating above their heads, and a giant Jack-o-Lantern stood at the head of the room underneath the teacher's table.

Even the headmaster had gotten into the spirit, wearing voluminous black robes dotted with silver stars. But Luna was finding it impossible to be cheerful as she sat there sandwiched between Mai and Willa, with Draco nowhere to be seen and Ginny shooting her hurt looks from the Gryffindor table.

Halfway through her Cornish hen she decided she'd never be able to finish her dinner if she didn't at least give Draco a chance to say what he needed to say. She excused herself and left the table. When she reached the hallway she heard footsteps behind her. She turned and saw Ginny standing there, biting her lip.

"I saw that Draco wasn't there," she said.

"No. I think it's because I was mad at him," said Luna.

"You were mad at him?" said Ginny, brightening a little.

"I'm not going to stay mad, though," Luna warned. "He's not a bad person. Just a bit stupid. I'm going up to see him."

"Oh," said Ginny. Then she sighed. "That's better than nothing, I suppose. It's just…well, I really like you Luna. I'd like to be your friend."

"I'd like that to," said Luna.

"I guess…well, I was being rude too," she said. "Do you think maybe he'd apologize to me if I apologized too?"

Luna smiled then. "I think so. Come on."

By the time they reached the Ravenclaw common room the dinner must have been drawing to a close. "Let's get inside before the others come back. You're not supposed to be here."

She answered the riddle and together they went inside. The room was completely empty. Luna called out for Draco but nobody answered, and leaving Ginny downstairs she made her way up to where the first year boys slept and knocked twice—he wasn't there. She sighed, a little agitated that things weren't going to be as easy as she had thought they'd be.

"I think I know where he is," said Luna. "Come on."

The teacher's lounge was often spoken of and usually ignored by the students. And according to Draco, nobody ever went there after classes were done for the day. They had used it once to practice dueling, without any interruption apart from a visit by Filch, who they were able to avoid by hiding in a closet.

It was on the first floor, not too far from the Great Hall. Ginny and Luna were almost there when they heard loud screams. "Come on!" Luna shouted, taking off at a run in the direction of the clamor.

They were unable to see anything for several minutes. Luna was finally able to push through and when she did she gasped. Professor Robin was standing there, but it wasn't her. She was standing stark still, as if made of stone. Professor Dumbledore made his way through and put his hand on her arm, looking troubled. "Prefects, please escort all students in your house to their common rooms. I would like to meet with both teachers and the Head Boy and Head Girl."

"What do you think could have caused this?" said Ginny in horror.

"I don't know." She froze then, a horrible thought coming over her. "What if whoever, or whatever, did it is still here? I have to find Draco. Go on back…"

"No," said Ginny. "I'm coming with you."

Luna stared at her for a moment, and then nodded. Together they backtracked to the teacher's lounge. Luna pushed open the door and saw Draco sitting morosely in front of the fireplace. He jumped when he heard the door creak, facing them. "Luna!" he said in surprise.

"There isn't time to talk right now," she said. "Something's wrong. Professor Robin was attacked."

"Professor Robin? What happened?" he began moving, letting Luna explain to him what had happened as they got out into the dark hallway. When she'd finished telling him he shook his head.

"Some sort of curse. Something happened last year at Halloween." he said. Luna and Ginny both stopped, staring at him. "Last year it was a troll. Professor Flitwick finally got it under control."

"Do you think somebody is making it happen, then?" said Luna. Draco shrugged.

"Maybe. Come on, let's get Ginny back to the Gryffindor Common room so she doesn't have to walk around here alone."

"Er…thank you," said Ginny. Draco nodded civilly in her direction.

They had just reached the third floor when Luna first heard the voice. She stopped in her steps, then turned and ran back down the stairs. Draco and Ginny both called out after her, but she raised her hand to stop them.

"Wait," she ordered, "I hear something."

She could tell that they were words, although it took her several moments to work out what the garbled speech was exactly. Then she finally did, and she could feel her blood run cold.

"_Murder…I want flesh….bodies…kill the impure……look into….my…..eyes…."_

"Oh my God," she said in horror.

"What is it?"

"Can't you hear that?" she said in shock.

Draco and Ginny shook their heads. "Come on, we have to get to the room," she said. "Something wants to kill us. And it's still out there."

They broke into a run, flying back up the stairs and towards Gryffindor tower. "Wait," Luna hissed, pointing toward the forbidden corridor, "did you see somebody there?"

"No time!" Draco grabbed her hand and pulled her after him.

The hissing voice came again as they approached the portrait of the fat lady that led to the Gryffindor common room. Luna froze, doubling over. "It's so close!" she gasped. Ginny spun around to look at her and went flying on the floor screaming out in pain as her ankle twisted under her.

Something shimmered in the darkness, coming toward them. Luna gasped. "It's coming!" she shouted, pointing toward it. Draco pulled out his wand. "That won't stop it," she gasped. "We have to get to Gryffindor tower. We can go inside. It won't go in there."

Draco nodded, then reached down and pulled her to her feet. Together they kept her moving, but with the three of them joined together there was no way they could outrun the menace slithering noiselessly toward them.

It was at their back. Luna cried out when the ground shook beneath them as something struck the floor. "Don't look into its eyes!" she screamed. They fell forward. She flipped over onto her stomach, arms over her head so that her eyes were covered. Beside her she could hear Ginny screaming too.

Then the monster behind them made a horrible noise—something like out of the horror movies Kevin had watched with her when they were younger—and it disappeared.

"Are you all right?"

It was Professor Snape. Luna felt herself lifted up to her feet. She nodded, then turned to look at Draco and Ginny.

Snape moved toward them slowly, and gently pulled Draco off of Ginny. He fell back to the floor, completely petrified. Ginny was trembling. "He saved me," she whispered. "I was staring right at the thing and he covered my face when you said to. And then…."

But Luna was looking past Ginny. "A mirror," she whispered. "Professor, he must have seen that thing's eyes in the mirror. It was a…"

"A basilisk," he said solemnly. "Miss Lovegood, take care not to say too much of this to the other students. Mr. Malfoy…Draco…he will be all right."

She lived in something of a haze until she got to bed, explaining first to Professor Flitwick, and then to McGonagall, and finally to Dumbledore himself what she had seen before she was allowed to say goodnight to Ginny from her spot in the infirmary and go to bed.

It took a while for her to get to sleep. She was sure that she had seen somebody coming from the forbidden corridor, somebody who was hiding something inside their cloak. And that meant that whatever had been hidden in the third floor corridor had now been stolen. She'd have to ask Hagrid about it…and then there was the matter of Draco, who could possibly take weeks to wake up out of his petrification. She yawned, then turned over.

Life at Hogwarts had suddenly gone from interesting to dangerous.


	12. The Forbidden Corridor

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Twelve: The Forbidden Corridor  
**

"I heard she went right into the Chamber of Secrets!"

Luna blushed, picking up her bag and leaving the common room as quickly as she could. It had been over a month since Draco and Professor Robin had turned to stone, and they were still being kept in the infirmary, waiting for the potion that would bring them back to normal. All kinds of rumors had been flying around since then, most of which she had done her best to ignore.

Ginny met her at the door to the Great Hall. "What's wrong?" she asked as Luna sat down with her at the Gryffindor table.

"Just stupid rumors, that's all," she said with a sigh.

"They're not talking about Draco again?"

Luna shook her head. Since Draco had saved Ginny in the hall that night she had become one of his biggest supporters.

"Then it's about you." Luna didn't say anything in reply.

Ron and Harry arrived a few minutes later and sat down across from them at the table. Ron began loading up his plate, while Harry waved.

"Converting to Gryffindor, are you? Good girl."

"Only for breakfast," she said.

"Er…any news about Malfoy?"

"Draco," Ginny corrected.

"Yeah. Right," said Harry. He looked a little uncomfortable. Luna told him that she hadn't heard anything new yet. He informed her that he hoped he'd be better soon, and went on to discuss the upcoming Quidditch match with Ron.

The mail arrived then, and as usual Luna looked up to see if she could spot Hermes among the other owls in the flock. He swooped down over her, an envelope clutched securely in his talons. She caught it before he could drop it in the butter dish, noticing the precise writing across the front.

Ginny leaned over. "Who's it from?" she asked.

"My aunt," she replied, tearing it open.

Her heart fell as she read the letter.

_Luna,_

_Your uncle has taken ill. He is in the hospital right now and will be beginning treatment over the holidays. Kevin will be staying at his aunt's house and we think it best that you remain at school over the break. Your uncle sends his love._

_Aunt Beatrice_

She handed the letter over to Ginny so she could read it.

"Oh no!" said Ginny. "I could ask my mum if you could come and stay with us for Christmas."

Luna thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "I couldn't leave Draco here, alone," she said.

"Oh, right." She frowned. "My mum would never let me stay here alone," she said. "Not unless…" Stopping with her fork halfway to her mouth, she glanced up at her brother. "Unless Ron stayed to."

Hearing his name spoken, Ron looked up at her. "Me?" he said. "What did you just say?"

"I was asking if maybe you'd stay here over the holidays so I could stay to," said Ginny. "Mum would let me then! And Luna wouldn't have to be alone."

"I'm at school enough when it's in session," said Ron, rolling his eyes. "Count me out."

"Come on, it wouldn't be too bad," said Harry. Everybody turned to look at him. "I could stay too. Then…I dunno, we could see if all those secret passages Fred and George are always going on about are real. And we could be around when the you-know-what in Hagrid's cabin comes out."

Ron chewed thoughtfully on a piece of toast. Finally, he nodded. "Yeah, we'd have the pitch to ourselves too," he said. "I guess I can write home."

***

Christmas morning came bright and early. The Ravenclaw common room was empty when she went down, and she was still in her pajamas when she heard a knocking at the door. Ginny was standing there in her dressing gown, pink cheeked and cheerful.

"Merry Christmas, Luna!" she sang. "Come on! And grab your presents!"

"Presents?" Luna glanced under the tree and saw a handful of colorful boxes.

"There's more for you over in the Gryffindor common room. Come on!" She took Luna by the hand and half-dragged her across the castle to the portrait of the fat lady that guarded the common room.

"Courage!" called out Ginny, before the portrait could ask for the password.

"And Merry Christmas to you," said the fat lady, swinging open to allow them inside.

Harry and Ron were sprawled out in front of the fireplace, playing a game of wizard's chess when they arrived. "Good! You're here!" said Harry, standing up.

"He's just glad to see you because he was getting destroyed," said Ron, packing up the game.

"And there's presents," said Ginny, rolling her eyes. Both boys grinned sheepishly. The four of them sat down in front of the tree, and Ginny handed around several lumpy packages wrapped in scarlet (and in Luna's case blue) paper.

"Mum sent you guys presents too?" said Ron with a groan.

Luna and Harry assured the Weasleys that they thought the gesture nice, and tore open their packages at the same time. Luna's was a fuzzy blue jumper, covered in little stars, and a tin of homemade fudge. Promising them that she liked it, very much, she put it on right there and took a bite of the candy, admitting it was some of the best she'd ever had.

"Here, this is from my parents." To Ron they had sent a Quidditch playbook, autographed by the Keeper of the British national team. Ginny got a bracelet decorated with a stone that changed color every few minutes.

Harry glanced over Luna's shoulder as she sat staring at her own gift. "A picture?" he said. "Look, that's my mum and dad right there. See?" He pointed down at a woman with dark red hair and a black-haired man who looked almost exactly like Harry standing beside her.

Luna flipped the picture over.

_We didn't know if you had any pictures of your mother, _it said, _and we found this a little while back while going through some things. We knew both your parents. Your mother was a strong presence and we will not soon forget her._

_Lily Potter_

She turned the picture back over, looking at the woman and man who were standing next to Harry's parents. Her mother had long straight hair, a darker blonde than hers, with the same big blue eyes. Her father had a wild mane of platinum blonde. He had a distant look on his face.

"You look a lot like your mum," said Harry, smiling.

"I don't know," said Luna. "I look a lot like my dad, too."

She put the picture away, and everybody turned around to look at what Harry had received. He cried out when he opened the box, pulling out something made of a silvery material.

"Wicked! Your dad finally gave it to you!" said Ron.

"What is it?" asked Ginny.

Harry grinned, throwing it over himself. Luna and Ginny gasped as he vanished from sight. He reappeared a second later, standing behind Ginny. He tweaked her hair, causing her to jump and shriek, and sending Ron into fits of laughter.

"It's an invisibility cloak," he explained. "My dad got it from his dad."

"You know what this means," said Ron. "Now we can get almost anywhere in the school we want to! We could get…"

"We could get into the third floor corridor," said Luna. The three of them turned to look at her, and she blushed—she hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud. "Well," she said, "I know I saw something that night. With the school empty and the invisibility cloak, we could see if whatever was down there is still there."

"I agree," said Harry, at the same moment that Ginny and Ron began to stammer out in the negative.

"That monster is still out there!" said Ron.

"So?" said Harry. "The monster was released so somebody could steal whatever was down there."

After a little debate it was decided that the four of them would head into the third-floor corridor a few hours after dinner, when most of the castle was asleep.

***

Not many students had stayed behind for the holidays, so Luna, Ginny, Ron, and Harry were invited right up to the teacher's table for Christmas dinner. Luna was sandwiched between Ginny and Snape, who was being fairly civil—she assumed it was his version of a Christmas gift for the rest of them.

Dumbledore greeted all of them warmly, speaking to the students as well as the teachers around the table. He listened to Ron and Harry's predictions for the final Quidditch games of the season, gave Ginny a discourse on unicorns, and had a conversation with both Luna and Snape about the dueling club.

There was a lovely bread pudding—and all kinds of sugary sweets—and crackers, with exploded in a sea of beautiful colors and left behind all sorts of treats. Harry walked away with a miniature version of his favorite Quidditch player, who could really fly, and Ron got a brand new wizard's chess set, which he promised to cream Harry with later. Ginny got a rose made out of sugar, and Luna got a small silver telescope.

After a round of Christmas carols led by Dumbledore the others retired back to the Gryffindor common room, while Luna excused herself from them and went straight to the infirmary. Draco was lying down at the back of the room behind a curtain that had been erected to keep people from staring. She slipped behind the curtain and sat down on the edge of his bed.

"I hope you don't mind, but I spent Christmas with Harry and Ginny and her brother," said Luna. "They don't hate you anymore, not since you saved Ginny's life. Even Ron admitted you aren't really all that bad."

He continued to stare up at nothing with glass eyes. Luna sighed—it was getting very frustrating having conversations with somebody who wasn't even completely there. She stood up, pulling a small box wrapped in shiny paper out of her pocket and slipping it into his hand.

"You can just open that when you wake up," she said, leaning down and kissing him on the forehead before she left, heading back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Courage," she said.

"_You _aren't a Gryffindor," said the Fat Lady.

"Ginny is letting me sleep in her room tonight," said Luna.

"Hmph."

The door swung open then, making the Fat Lady shriek. Luna scrambled inside. Harry, Ron and Ginny were all waiting, seated in a half-circle beside the fire.

"We're planning our attack," said Harry.

"Yeah! Come on," said Ginny. The girls sat down with them. A small flute was lying in the middle of the floor—she recognized it as Hagrid's Christmas gift to Harry, as she'd received a similar one.

"The creature that guards the third-floor corridor is Hagrid's three-headed dog, Fluffy," said Harry. "He let on about him while we were taking care of the egg. And he said that the only way to calm him down is with a bit of music. Ginny took lessons when she was younger, so she'll take care of that."

At that Ginny nodded. Harry went on. "We don't know what else may be down there, so Ginny's going to find a safe place to wait while the three of us go on.

Ginny protested, and both boys turned to stare at her. "Luna's been taking dueling lessons, and the two of us are second years. And besides that, if something were to happen to all three of us we need somebody to go get help.

With a sigh Ginny gave in, and Harry continued.

"We won't need the invisibility cloak after we're in, but just in case anybody can't go on, the cloak is going to stay with whoever needs it. So if I get stuck, I want you to take it Luna."

She nodded. With their plan worked out, they headed back out into the hallway, all huddled together under the cloak. The Fat Lady cried out, "Who's there?" when she opened and saw nobody. They quietly closed her back up and made their way through the hall, coming dangerously close to Filch at one point and passing, with a shudder, through the Bloody Baron.

"Okay, let's go," said Harry. "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked open and they slipped inside, pulling the cloak off as soon as the door was shut firmly behind them. "Lumos!" three voices whispered, as Ginny raised the flute to her lips and began to play. A snarling came out of the darkness, lasting for only a few moments before the creature slumped down and began to snore.

Then they pulled open the trapdoor and slipped inside.

They landed on top of a dead plant. Ginny thought she recognized it, but couldn't be certain. "I guess whoever was here that night killed it," said Luna.

"I guess," said Harry, getting to his feet. "All right. Ginny, this should be safe enough for you. Here's my watch." He took it off his wrist and handed it to her. "If we aren't back in an hour go get help."

Ginny nodded, and the three of them left her behind to enter the first room. Not being of a Quidditch-oriented mind, it was not Luna who figured out that the things whizzing above their heads were not bats or birds, like she'd first assumed, but winged keys, one of which opened the door leading to the next room.

"Are you any good at flying?" asked Harry, as he picked a broom up from the wall.

"Not really," said Luna.

"All right. Stay by the door. Ron and I will go after the key. It's going to match the doorknob so describe it to us."

It took less than fifteen minutes for Harry to locate the key and dive for it. He handed it to Luna, who pulled the door open and exited into the next room.

They made it through a game of wizard's chess, and together Harry and Luna worked out a puzzle that could only have been something of Snape's creation.

But only one could go through the flames and come back out, so Luna stepped through alone, finding herself in a dark and dusty chamber. A mirror stood in the middle of the room and she approached it slowly, standing in front of it. She saw her reflection first, then she saw others standing around her.

Her uncle was there with his hand on her shoulder, smiling proudly, and Draco was behind her, pulling faces at her. Her aunt had her arm around her uncle's waist, and they all looked far happier than she was certain they'd ever been in her life.

It was an illusion. She shook her head to clear it—the mirror was just showing her what she wanted to see. She focused her thoughts—what did she really want? To find whatever it was the person she'd seen the night of the attack was looking for.

In the mirror, her reflection smiled and held out its hand. An egg-sized stone the color of a ruby was in its hand, and then it slipped it into its pocket. Luna gasped as she felt the weight of it in her own pocket. She looked around, as if afraid somebody would see her, and went back through the flames.

Together the four of them left the third-floor corridor. They didn't even use the invisibility cloak on the way back, a mistake they only realized when the spotted Professor Flitwick coming toward them in the hall. "Miss Lovegood!" he squeaked. "The headmaster wants you in his office."

"M-me?" she said in shock.

"Please go immediately. And the rest of you, return to your rooms!"

"I'll see you later," Luna whispered to Ginny, slipping the stone she had found into her pocket. Then, escorted by Flitwick, she went to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Acid pop," squeaked Flitwick. The gargoyle that guarded his office slid to the side and revealed a tall staircase leading up to his door. "The headmaster is in his office. Go on up."

She took the stairs, wondering what could possibly be going on that he would need to see her so late—she imagined that there had been some sort of ward on the room with the mirror, which was why she was the only one who'd gotten in trouble.

The office door was open. She slipped inside and Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, a solemn look on his face.

"Miss Lovegood, please have a seat."

She sat down across from him, heart thumping in her chest.

Dumbledore stood up, a letter in his hand. "I have received word from your Aunt that her husband has been seriously ill, and that this is why you have spent your holiday here."

"Uncle Henry?" Luna shot out of her chair. "Is he all right? What's wrong?"

The light that was usually in Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have faded. He shook his head sadly. "I find it hard, Luna, that it is my duty to inform you that your uncle does not have long to live. Your aunt will be keeping in touch so that when the time comes you may be there for him. I understand…you are close?"

Luna nodded. "Yes," she said. "We are."

She returned to her own bed, where she spent most the night staring up at the ceiling and thinking about everything that had happened that night. Why did it seem like everybody she cared about…left? Draco, and her uncle, and even her mom before she was born. She pulled the covers up to her neck and around dawn fell into a fitful sleep.


	13. The Forgotten Photograph

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I hope you like this chapter, and as always…nothing is ever as it seems.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Thirteen: The Forgotten Photograph  
**

The weeks after school began again passed by in a haze. Luna went from her room to the Great Hall, to class, and back to her room when the day was over, all without saying much to anyone—even Ginny, Harry, or Ron, who had yet to really discuss with her what had happened beneath the third-floor corridor, or what the nature of the stone she had found was.

She had other things on her mind, spread out between a night ten years earlier, a shabby flat in London, and a boy turned to stone who was sleeping in the infirmary still.

For a time, she stopped going to the Dueling Club, ignoring even her lessons with Snape, until one afternoon after class he stopped her and, with arms crossed over his chest and looking down his hooked nose at her, asked what was going on.

"I can't, Professor," she said. "Draco was my partner and…besides that, it was wrong of me to join the club in the first place. My uncle wanted me to stay out of harms way. If anything happened to me right now…" and then she stopped talking, taking a deep breath.

"I understand," he said after a moment. "But you are always welcome to rejoin if you change your mind."

She nodded, though she was certain that such a thing wouldn't happen.

She turned back and was heading toward her room when she heard footsteps flying down the hall. Ginny ran into view. "Luna!" she said excitedly. "Hagrid wants us to come. He…well, he has something to show us!"

It was a rare thing in those days to smile, but she couldn't help but grin as she followed Ginny out of the castle and the two made their way to the hut. She hadn't been down to take care of the egg since receiving the news about her uncle, had in fact for a time seemed to have forgotten about the matter. Ginny knocked at the door and it opened a crack, after a moment opening further to admit the two of them before slamming closed behind them.

The cabin was sweltering, the fire turned up for the baby dragonette to ease it out of its shell. The stone-colored egg was split right down the middle, with bits and pieces already fallen off to reveal pale-green skin underneath.

Beaming just like a new father, Hagrid was leaning in with a pair of fireplace tongs to pull away some of the shards, talking to the baby inside as he did so.

It took a full hour to completely remove the dragonette from its shell. Hagrid cradled it in his giant hands as it mewled like a newborn kitten, tufts of smoke curling up from its nostrils.

"Won't breathe fire," he said as he scratched its scaly head, "but it will fly. See them wings?" he tenderly ran a finger along the translucent green skin that stretched from its back.

"I think she's marvelous," said Luna, smiling for the first time in days as she played with the tip of its tail.

"Hey, can I hold her Hagrid?" asked Harry. He took her into his hands, raising her to eye level.

"What're you going to name her?" asked Ginny.

"I was thinkin' of Olive," he said. Everybody in the cramped hut agreed that Olive was a perfectly nice name.

Around dinnertime everybody tramped out but Luna. Harry stayed back, pulling her aside as Hagrid tended to his new pet.

"What's been going on?" he asked. "Have you found out anything about that weird…well, you know?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I think it was a mistake to mess with all that in the first place. I just want the semester to be over so I can go home."

"Go home?" Harry blinked. "What, you mean back to the muggles?"

Luna opened the door to the hut and walked out. Harry followed close behind.

"The muggle," she said after a moment and seeing that he wasn't going to leave her alone, "is my uncle. And he's dying."

Both of them stopped. She hadn't realized that tears were forming her eyes but, suddenly, they were flowing down her face. Harry put an awkward hand around her shoulder as she cried, and even with the sky going dark all around them they both sat right down on the grass beside the lake. For several minute she sobbed—Harry looked a bit frightened, though being a twelve-year-old boy it wasn't surprising that he was a bit untrained when it came to female tears.

Finally she wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffing. "It's not like I didn't think he would," she said. "Not since he got so sick a few years ago. But I thought…I don't know, it seems that with all this magic, and all this power, you could keep a person from leaving you."

They were quiet for a long moment, and finally Harry helped Luna to her feet. "I've never had anybody close to me die," he said after a while. "But you've got me. And Ron and Ginny, too, and even Draco—he won't be stone forever. Even if he'll always be a git. Sorry," he added when she glared at him, though he was sure he saw something reassuring in her eyes.

"Thanks," she said as they started back toward the castle.

Harry sighed. "You're welcome. That's what my mom said to my Aunt Petunia when her husband died. She's a muggle too, you know?"

"Really? You have a muggle aunt?"

"Yeah." As they walked toward the castle Harry told her all about the unpleasant Dursleys, who he had visited once a year (and once a year only) for his entire life. Unlike her uncle, they hated magic and disliked Harry because he was so different than their own son, a plump and bullying boy named Dudley. "Can't imagine what it would be like to be raised by them," he said.

They said goodnight and parted ways, Harry to the Gryffindor table and Luna to the Ravenclaw table, where she was cheered up enough to listen to Mai talk about the Keeper of the Hufflepuff team, who was the cutest boy in school so far as most of the girls were concerned.

***

Since Professor Robin was in the infirmary, frozen with the same curse that had hit Draco, Dumbledore had been forced to find a replacement for their potions lessons. Snape, Luna learned, was the former Potions Master, and indeed took over for almost two weeks. Before any of the students could work out how it was possible that he was teaching both Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions at the same time his replacement arrived.

It was generally a rule that a parent could not teach while their student was attending the school, but in cases such as that of Lily Potter exceptions were possible. On the first day that Luna walked into class she was certain that she'd never seen a woman quite so pretty in her entire life. She was tall and fair, with long auburn hair that was bound in a plait so as to be out of the way. She smiled at the students as they entered, gesturing for them to sit.

"Professor Snape suggested that she take the job," whispered Ginny as they took their seat together. "That's what Harry said."

"They're old friends," said Luna, remembering what Draco had told her.

"Good afternoon," she said when the class had settled. "My name is Lily Potter. A lot of you will know my son Harry. I'm here to replace Professor Robin until she is well again and as I'm not officially a professor here, please call me Mrs. Potter.

"Today we shall be covering elixirs that calm and subdue the spirit. If you would please turn to page 212, we will begin."

Luna pulled out her book. She was turning the page and murmuring to herself when she noticed that Mrs. Potter was staring her way. She looked up, straight into her eyes—it was shocking, for a moment, to see how similar to Harry's they were. Mrs. Potter smiled at her, but didn't say anything else. Luna supposed it was just part of the usual reaction that people had on figuring out who she was.

The lesson went well, although Colin Creevey's end result omitted a thick fog that put half the class into a stupor that had them stumbling through the halls for the rest of the day. As Luna and Ginny were cleaning up Mrs. Potter finally came over to Luna.

"Hello, Miss Lovegood," she said with a smile. "Harry has told me a bit about you in his letters home. I'm sorry to hear about your uncle."

"Oh," said Luna, blushing a little. "Thank you, Mrs. Potter."

"I was wondering if you might like to have tea with Harry and me tomorrow afternoon," she said. "In my office. Not mine, actually, Professor Robin's, but I doubt that she'll mind my use of it in this case."

"I, well…" It was on the tip of Luna's tongue to refuse but there was something about Mrs. Potter's kindness that was persuasive enough in its own right. "All right, I'd like that," she said.

The next day, she and Harry, along with Ginny and Ron, sat down around a small table decorated with a bright yellow tablecloth. All around the office were sunny reminders that somewhere in the castle the real potions professor was waiting to be woken up. Vases of permanently fresh flowers filled the underground room, and frilly curtains covered cabinets where Luna assumed jars filled with unmentionable oddities were hidden.

Lily ruffled Harry's already unkempt hair and greeted both Ron and Ginny, who she had met before. When she came face to face to Luna her smile changed a little—it seemed at once extraordinarily happy and a little sad.

"Professor Snape tells me that you're doing better in Defense Against the Dark Arts this term," she said to Harry as she handed him a cup of tea. "First in your class so far. I'm very proud of you."

Harry blushed and mumbled his thanks while Ron snickered. "And I just saw your father at the Ministry last week," she added, smiling at the Weasleys. "He was telling me that your older brother Bill just got promoted at Gringott's."

"Yes, Mrs. Potter," said Ginny. "He's a full curse-breaker now. Mum had a fit about it, she's certain he's going to end up under one of those weird ancient cursees."

"Oh, that sort of thing is entirely reversible," she said.

Luna didn't say much during the short half-hour they spent in the office. But she couldn't help but feel a little better, being a part of their group. It felt like she imagined a real family to be. They teased, joked, and shared old stories about one another. She wondered what it would have been like to grow up in the magical world, to have a mother like Mrs. Potter.

When Harry, Ron and Ginny said their goodbyes she lingered. "Mrs. Potter?"

She looked up from the table she was straightening. "Yes, Luna?"

"I was wondering…do you think you could tell me about my mom…and dad?"

Mrs. Potter was quiet for a long moment as she finished up what she was doing. Finally she sat back down at the now cleared table. "Why don't you have a seat?" she said. Luna crossed over and sat down beside her, staring very hard at the gleaming tabletop. "I met your parents while we were in school. They were both a few years above me…both of them Ravenclaws, so I didn't know them then. I really only met your mother after, when things started getting really bad and Voldemort was taking over."

Luna looked up quickly. "You said his name?"

Mrs. Potter smiled. "Sometimes it's best to say the name of something you're afraid of," she said. "Your mother was fearless, Luna. She was incredibly smart—one of the most intelligent people I ever knew, and Head Girl in her time. She'd be proud to see how well you're doing here at Hogwarts. Wait a moment," she said, standing up.

She moved to the other side of the room. She rummaged through a trunk, pulling out a leather bound album. "There are some pictures of your parents in here," she said, opening it halfway. She slid the album in front of Luna and pointed to a photograph of a woman with waist-length blonde hair, who stood stark still, her arm around the waist of a man with messy hair and a slightly dazed expression.

"That's my father?" she asked.

Mrs. Potter nodded gravely. "Yes…that's Xenophilius. He was always…strange. I know you've heard by now what he did, Luna, and I'm not the one to tell you about all of that."

"That's all right," she said. "Mrs. Potter? Do you think I might borrow this? Just for a while?"

"Of course," said Mrs. Potter. "You'd better be off. I don't want to keep you away from anything important."

Luna stood, hugging the album to herself. "Goodbye. Thank you," she said, smiling.

She went immediately to her room, missing dinner altogether, and spent the evening looking through the old pictures. There were several of her mother and father—most looking severe, although there were a few of her mother smiling. She cherished these, and wondered if there was any way to get her own copy of them.

She didn't recognize most of the people that she saw. There were notes next to some of the pictures, indicating that the people in the pictures had died before she was even born. There were a few pictures of Snape, ducking out of the frame as if avoiding being seen, and many more of Mr. and Mrs. Potter. She saw Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, in quite a few pictures too—he was very handsome, though she couldn't help but think he looked a little arrogant too.

In the back of the album were a bunch of loose photographs that hadn't been tacked down, or had gotten loose. She poked through these, surprised to find that many were newer pictures. Coming across one of Professor Robin with a little girl (who could possibly have been a sister), she realized that the pictures weren't Mrs. Potters. They had to have gotten into her things by mistake.

Although a part of her thought she should just set them aside—she hadn't been given permission to look through them, after all—one in particular caught her eye. Professor Robin was standing at the edge of a thick forest, her arm around the waist of a tall wizard in purple robes. It took Luna a few seconds to realize why he looked so familiar—when she did, she ran right on through the common room, ignoring the looks shot in her direction, and went straight to the Gryffindor common room.

The Fat Lady's portrait was sliding open just as she got there, and passing right by the surprised fifth years exiting she went straight to the table where Ginny was copying her Charms homework.

"I need to talk to you. To everyone. I think I found something really important. Meet me in the library…"

"No." Ginny reached out. "If it's about the you-know-what we'd better go somewhere more private. Wait for us out in the hall."

Luna nodded. She went back outside, ignoring the Fat Lady as the portrait admonished her. After several long minutes had passed the portrait opened again, closing again with nobody appearing to have exited. Luna suddenly felt something nudge her arm—nodding, she walked with the invisible force until she was out of sight of the portrait, and then felt for the edge of Harry's invisibility cloak, ducking underneath.

"We're going to go to Hagrid's cabin," said Harry. "He's in the Forbidden Forest tonight on a detention. If he come's back early we'll tell him we were checking on the dragonette."

They carefully made their way out of the castle and across the grounds. Since the night of the attack, nobody had seen or heard anything else about the snake-creature that had frozen Draco and Professor Robin, though it still made Luna a little uneasy to be out in the halls after hours.

They entered Hagrid's hut. The dragonette squeaked excitedly when it saw them, smoke tendrils curling out of its nostrils. Luna patted its head, taking a seat at the table. Ginny and Harry followed suit.

"I wanted to show you this," she said, setting down the photograph she had found.

"That's Professor Robin," said Ginny. "But who's that guy with her?"

Harry picked it up, eyes widening in surprise. "That's Quirrel! The guy they're looking for."

"You mean that Quirrel and Robin know each other?" said Ginny.

"Know each other?" said Luna. "Look at what it says on the back. 'Me and my fiancé, trip to Albania, June 1990.' They were supposed to get married!"

"Wild," said Harry, shaking his head. "So then…"

Luna nodded, glad that Harry had come to the same conclusion. "Robin may have been working with Quirrel to get the stone."

"But she was turned to stone!" said Ginny.

"Exactly," said Harry. "Maybe she decided to stop working for him! Maybe she broke it off, and he tried to kill her to keep her quiet! I heard that Hermione girl talking, she's sure that the creature that did it was a basilisk…if that's true, both Draco and Robin are lucky to be alive."

"Hmm," Luna mumbled to herself. "It makes sense. I just wish I knew what the stone was, and why it's so important. Quirrel can't get into Hogwarts himself, so if he's still after it he must have somebody else on the inside. The question is who?"

"The only new person in Hogwarts is my mother," said Harry with a grin, "maybe she's the one."

"Yeah, right," said Ginny, rolling her eyes.

"Whoever it is," said Luna, "they're going to be angry when they find out that the stone isn't there anymore."

The three of them looked at each other. There was a sound at the door—without a word they slipped back under the cloak and snuck out underneath Hagrid's arm as he came inside, making their way back up the castle.

Luna left Harry and Ginny at their common room, borrowing Harry's cloak for the remainder of her journey to Ravenclaw tower. She paused at the entrance to the third-floor corridor. She wondered…

If there was really somebody still after the stone, then couldn't she watch to see who came around the corridor? She was sure she'd seen somebody that night, many weeks before, and with the invisibility cloak nobody would be able to tell she was there.

Resolving to spend an hour, and only an hour, watching the spot, she settled down on the floor across from it, in a position to watch without getting too close.

For a long time the only thing she saw was the silvery glint of a passing ghost. Then, when she was just beginning to debate returning to her room, a cloaked figure appeared. It paused for a moment to look around before slipping through the door. Luna noticed that in its hand it held a battered old journal and quill…what could it possibly be doing with something like that?

She waited for a while, but an hour passed and it didn't return. Rousing herself from her position, she was debating what to do next when she heard footsteps heading her way. She waited—Professor Snape and the Headmaster appeared, discussing something in whispers as they came through the hall.

Luna steeled herself. She stepped back into the shadows and pulled off the cloak, tucking it into her pocket and stepping back out, right into their line of sight.

They paused. "What are you doing out here, Miss Lovegood?" said Snape fiercely, his voice rising and sounding more angry than she'd ever heard it.

"I'm…just walking," she said. She could lie much better, but she wasn't trying to be believed.

"And where are you walking to, so late at night?" said Professor Dumbledore. The old man stepped forward, blue eyes twinkling even in the shadows.

"I was just heading back to my room from the library," she said, hoping that they didn't search her pockets and find anything that was with her.

"And where are your things? Students aren't allowed in the halls this late, especially after what happened to your friend."

"I…" And then Luna did something she hadn't done in years. She sat right down on the floor and began to sob, shoulders shaking. "I told him not to do it, but he did anyway! I was waiting to be sure he got out okay, b-b-but…"

"Who's doing what?" Snape came over to her, jerking her to her feet. Luna hoped that the tears in her eyes were convincing—when she was younger she could cry on command, but she hadn't done it since Uncle Henry caught on to what she was doing.

"My f-f-friend…ooh, I can't tell you who! He went into the third-floor corridor! He said there was s-something important down there! You must go after him, he's been in there for an hour!"

Dumbledore and Snape exchanged glances. "I'll have a look," he said, pulling out his wand and slipping through the door.

Dumbledore put a hand on Luna's shoulder. When Snape was gone he smiled. "I think that has been quite enough, Miss Lovegood," he said, "and I think now you ought to head back to your dormitory. I'll tell you if Snape finds your….friend. Of course, I can't let you go without a detention without being unfair. I will have your Head of House give you the details of your punishment tomorrow."

Luna nodded. A detention wasn't the worse that could have happened to her. She thanked Dumbledore and turned, walking slowly away and breaking into a run when she was out of sight.


	14. Mars and the Moon

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I hope you like this chapter, and as always…nothing is ever as it seems.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Fourteen: Mars and the Moon**

The prospect of a detention wasn't something that Luna was looking forward to, and she might have been dreading it more if it wasn't for the very good news that came that morning over breakfast. It was Snape himself who brought her the news—the potion that would release Draco and Robin from their frozen state would be finished within the week. Ginny let out a squeal of excitement from the Gryffindor table when she overheard the news, and the moment Snape was out of sight she ran over and the two girls didn't eat a bite more, whispering to each other until the bell rang.

It was still a little troubling to Luna that she'd heard nothing more about the person who'd gone into the third-floor corridor. A part of her was wondering if she might have been charmed into seeing something that wasn't there—surely she'd have heard by now if somebody had been found. And the fact that nobody had said anything about the missing stone was starting to wear on her nerves a little bit—unless…

Luna was beginning to suspect, quite strongly, that the stone she had hidden away in her trunk was a duplicate of the real stone. Whether it had been put there by the thief or by Dumbledore she could only guess.

She did, however, believe she was coming very close to understanding what the original had been. The first clue came to her in the form of a man that Mrs. Potter mentioned once during class, and who Hagrid had mentioned one a week earlier.

"Can yeh look after the dragon? Dumbledore's meetin' with Nicholas Flamel, wants me to escort the ol' man aroun'."

"Nicholas Flamel?" Luna said, the name sounding familiar.

"He's of no mind t'you," Hagrid warned. It was this warning that made Luna realize he was pretty important.

It took her most of History of Magic to realize why the name was familiar to her. Back when she'd been coming into her powers—when she was _sure _she had powers, however ridiculous people told her the idea was—she had done some research in muggle libraries, gobbling up whatever information she could get on the subject.

The mythology around Flamel said that he succeeded at two goals—creating a magical stone that could turn lead into gold, and somehow achieving immortality.

If that man of muggle myth and this Flamel that was meeting with Dumbledore was one and the same, it seemed pretty obvious to Luna why Quirrel had been after the stone. What she couldn't get at was why the stone was being kept at Hogwarts—surely something like that would be better kept at Gringott's, where it had originally been, and not under some strange maze of dogs and flying keys and chess…

All she could figure was there had to be something more to it, something that she was missing. But figuring that out was going to have to wait.

As soon as Potions was over Luna reported to Professor Flitwick, who was occupied with arranging the contents of his vast personal library.

"Oh, Miss Lovegood!" he called out, spotting her. "Your detention has been changed. You will be taking it in the Forbidden Forest with Professor Snape."

"With Snape?" said Luna, blinking in surprise.

"Yes. I believe that he is aiding Hagrid in trailing some creature that has been hunting the unicorns in the forest." When he saw the look on Luna's face, he nodded gravely. "Young as you are, you are indeed talented in the use of Defensive magics, Miss Lovegood. I have noticed as much with your Charms work. Don't fret, you will be kept perfectly safe."

She nodded, though Flitwick had misinterpreted the look of surprise on her face. She wasn't worried about being harmed, though she knew that the forest was forbidden for a reason. But she had never heard of a student taking their detention with Professor Snape—even when he assigned them himself it was usually doing menial chores with Flitwick or Hagrid, or even with Filch (though this punishment was reserved for severe transgressions.)

She concluded that Snape was after something—of course, she had never expected either Snape or Dumbledore to believe what she'd said that night, not completely.

A little worried, she made her way to Snape's office, where he was packing a small leather satchel. He glanced over his shoulder, nodding when he saw Luna arrive. "You're on time. That is acceptable. We have another student joining us tonight, and with any luck she'll decide to arrive on time."

It turned out that they were only somewhat lucky—Eris Lestrange arrived a full ten minutes after she was supposed to. "As head of your house, I'm thoroughly disappointed in you Miss Lestrange," he said dryly.

"I'm sorry Professor," she said, "but I had so much homework for McGonagall…"

He snorted. "I am adding an extra foot to your scroll. Please be more wary of time in the future."

He left the room. Luna glanced over at Eris—she had found it to be her good fortune not to have had too many encounters with the unpleasant girl since she started at Hogwarts. The few times she had, they had been bitter remarks made in hallways and remarks made to be overheard over the breakfast tables. It was obvious that Eris found Luna unremarkable—even more obvious that Eris was trying to make as many people as possible think that Luna was an attention-grubber.

Now, alone for the first time in a long while and without Snape around to moderate, Eris turned a vicious smile on Luna, dark eyes glittering.

"So, I heard your muggle uncle is dying. Nasty habit those muggles have, being weak and all…"

"I don't want to listen to you," said Luna, turning to her. She was trying her hardest to stay calm, even though she wanted to turn around and slap her.

"Oh, don't you?" Eris hissed. "You know, by now I'd think you'd be used to people dying. It's pretty stupid how people pity you the way you do…your mum just up and died, bet she didn't even fight back, and MY mum was framed and put away in prison…"

"If she was anything like you I'm sure she wasn't framed!" Luna whipped around. "You're just a nasty little brat who can't do anything but make up lies to get attention."

"ME make up lies?" said Eris, as if aghast. "I'll bet your uncle is safe and well…really, are you going to make up a dead relative everytime you're in need of a pity party?"

Luna raised her wand, Eris followed suit, and both quickly hid them away as Snape walked back into the room. Sensing the friction, he raised an eyebrow at the girls. Luna tried to hide her face, certain he'd be able to see something there. Eris looked perfectly serene.

"Take these," he said, handing them both smaller version of the large pack he held. "Emergency packets. Hagrid is already out there with Fang looking, we'll meet up with him midforest and split up to cover more ground. He says he heard a cry about an hour ago so a unicorn may already be dead or dying. If one is still alive when we find it we'll try and aid it if we can. Otherwise…"

Luna nodded. She understood. They left the castle, walking straight to the edge of the forest. It seemed darker inside than Luna thought it should be. The stars disappeared beneath the thick canopy—and it was quieter than Luna thought it should be too. There were no animals making sounds. Every once in a while though she thought she could feel something watching her, or hear something rustling in the undergrowth.

"Stay close," said Snape, "and keep your wands at the ready."

Luna did as she was told, holding her wand close to her. Eris followed suit reluctantly, and as a small group they moved forward into the dark forest. They had scarcely gone twenty steps in when Snape paused, crouching down to note a silver substance that was glistening on the leaves of a small shrubbery. "That's unicorn blood," he said. "It gives life to any who partake of it."

"But isn't it a taboo?" said Luna. "Unicorns are sacred."

"That's right," said Snape. "I pray that it's a creature we're after. Anything else has got to be desperate."

They continued on. They walked for close to half an hour, finding more blood, before they saw the animal in the middle of a clearing. Snape reached out and grabbed her shoulder before they could go near it. A strange cloaked figure was crouching down, drinking the blood of the dead animal. It looked up, eyes shining brightly and boring straight into Luna's.

She screamed. A searing pain swept through her, starting at the scar on her forehead and seeming to radiate outward. Falling to the ground, she could only hear Snape shout and the creature take off. Warning the girls not to move he fled after it. Several long minutes passed—Eris said nothing and after a little while Luna was able to shakily return to her feet.

Finally they heard something coming towards them—something huge. A woman's torso appeared out of the grasses. Eris shrieked, tripping over herself and turning to run from the forest. When Luna got a proper look at him she saw what had scared Eris. Though she had the body of a woman, her lower half was that of a horse.

"Child, you had best come with me," she said, looking away from the dead body in the center of the clearing. "It would not do to have you harmed."

She reached out his hand. Luna debated for only a moment before taking it. The centaur pulled her onto her back, and took off at a run through the forest. Feeling a little sick, she leaned forward onto the centaur's back. "What is your name?" she mumbled.

"My name is Varael, Luna Lovegood," she said. "I am taking you to our camp."

The forest got darker and darker. Luna gave up on trying to remember where they had been—the centaur moved far too fast for her to keep up. When she finally slowed down they had reached a narrow grove populated with wooden huts that had been built against the trees. A small grouping of centaurs, all women, were waiting for Varael when she strode into the camp.

"Where have you been?" said the eldest, whose long white hair was bound into a thick plait.

"I found the girl," said Varael.

The others looked around to where Luna sat, now a little more alert and aware of the fact that the centaurs didn't look entirely pleased to see her. "You have brought her to our home," said a young centaur furiously. She stepped forward. Her hair was bright red and shorn close to the head. Tattoos covered her torso and shoulders, and she wore tight leather armor over the fabric the women bound their chests with.

"She could not find it again," said Varael. "And remember who it is, my cousin, before you judge so harshly. She is our once and future…"

"Shh," said the elder, turning her gaze to the heavens. "All to be revealed in time."

Luna thought that if her head wasn't swimming at the moment then what the centaurs were saying might make more sense. But as it was she was content to let them speak, without trying to understand it.

"Mars is bright, and burning brighter every moment," said the elder as she watched the heavens. Luna realized then that the trees above the camp parted to reveal the night sky. She glanced up, and tried to remember from her lessons which one was Mars. She found it, following the trail of stars.

"He is chasing the moon," said Luna after a long moment.

The centaurs turned to her. "Yes, child," said the elder. "You see this?" She strode over to Varael and pointed to the bright crescent in the sky. "But Chiron there…he is watching. He will not let the moon be harmed."

It seemed to Luna that there was some sense in what the Centaur was saying. She told the elder as much, and the woman smiled.

"Child, before the days of the Dark Lord we were strong, but we were naïve. All our men were killed those long years ago. Our days are numbered…" She put her hand across Luna's forehead. "We are mistrustful of your mind, but we have nothing more to protect. No children to nurture…this forest will no longer be ours to watch in a few years time. But I can do what I must to be certain that this happens no longer, no other child of the forest….and surely you are a daughter of the moon. Your father named you aptly…"

Luna felt her scar began to tingle, and in an instant it seemed that all the pain from earlier had melted away.

"Surely you do not mean…" began the redheaded centaur.

"I do," said the elder. "She will be granted entry into our tribe, and may return here one day as necessary. Is that satisfactory?" She looked into Luna's eyes, smiling sadly. "My name is Grahla. Search for me when Mars crawls high into the sky and the moon turns red…I will be here for you."

There was a sound at the edge of the clearing. The centaurs drew their bows and Grahla raised her hand to stay them. "Hagrid, is that you I hear?"

The giant stepped into their midst. They lowered their bows, though the strings remained taut.

"I see yeh have Luna," he said. "I expected as much. Snape said he saw a centaur ridin' one way an' Eris the other. If yeh'll please I'll get her back to the castle now."

The centaur nodded. Hagrid walked right up to them and plucked Luna from Varael's back. He carried her all the way back to the edge of the forest and walked her to the castle, where Professor Snape was waiting to return her to her room. She understood that they wanted to keep her safe—after all, they'd never caught the basilisk—but she had been half tempted to see if she could get into the Gryffindor tower to tell everybody what she had seen and heard in the forest.

As it was, the moment she did have a chance was the one time she had something far more important to focus her attention on.

She was sitting on the Ravenclaw table, politely ignoring Willa once again, when the room went quiet. She turned—at the entrance to the room was Professor Robin and behind her Draco. After a long pause the room broke out into excited chatter—and then, to the surprise of everybody, a loud shriek that led to Ginny rushing through the room and throwing her arms around Draco, hugging him tightly.

Nobody was more stunned than Draco—Luna wondered for a moment if he even remembered that it was Ginny's life he'd saved in the hallway. But as uncomfortable as she was certain the display would make him she could hardly help repeating Ginny's performance, albeit without the scream, and she capped the tight hug she gave him with a kiss on the cheek.

"Err…" he mumbled, blushing.

"You're back!" said Luna.

"Yeah, I guess I am," he said.

"I've got a lot to tell you," she said.

"I gathered," he said, glancing over at Ginny.

"Why don't we get together later? All of us?" said Ginny.

"All of us?" said Draco.

Luna smiled. "You, me, Ginny….and Harry and Ron of course," she said. "There's a lot of stuff for us to go over."

"Does it include why you're suddenly friends with _them?"_

"Because you saved my life!" said Ginny happily, taking his arm and walking with him to the table. Luna shrugged at the look he shot her—if he was going to go around saving people's lives, he was going to have to get used to people actually wanting to be friends with him. Maybe she'd have to remind him of that fact later.

They met later that evening, managing to find a mostly clear space in the library where they wouldn't be overheard. Apart from the glares that Draco and Harry shared once in a while things went mostly without incident.

Everybody had to admit that Luna's conclusion about the stone in the corridor seemed pretty likely—the question was who had the real stone now, and why?

As they walked back to their common room, Luna filled Draco in on the other details of her life.

"I'd have thought you'd given up this stuff, hearing about that," he said with a frown.

"I thought about it. But then I thought about something else. Nicholas Flamel made a stone that turns lead into gold. And he also found a way to become immortal. What if they weren't two separate discoveries? What if the Philosopher's Stone can make people immortal?"

Draco stopped right where he was. "Luna? What are you saying?"

"If I can find the real stone then I can save my uncle's life. And I'm going to do it."


	15. The Face in the Mirror

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I hope you like this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Fifteen: The Face in the Mirror**

Professor Robin did not immediately return to classes, which was a huge disappointment to Luna. She had been hoping to find out a little more about Professor Quirrel and whether the two of them had been working together before she was turned into stone. The few times that Luna did come across Robin her nerves were unmistakably frayed—it seemed as if she was afraid of something, although it made sense that she would be after what had happened.

Classes continued on helmed by Mrs. Potter for the foreseeable future, although Professor Robin remained at the school—Luna supposed that Dumbledore wanted to watch her for a while, which made her wonder if he suspected her also.

Things went back to normal, or as normal as they could get, after Draco woke back up, with the exception being that although Harry still spoke kindly to Luna whenever they saw each other around they rarely sought out each other's company any longer. It was just too awkward—Draco and Harry did have a very long history at all, and even the fact that Draco had saved the life of Harry's friend's sister couldn't take that away.

But Ginny had no problem with her sudden insertion into Draco and Luna's friendship—in fact, little more than a couple of weeks had passed before it seemed very normal to them to work in the library together, or sit out by the great lake as spring rose up around them. Even Draco had to admit that Ginny wasn't _nearly _as bad as the other Weasleys, though he was still wary of her older brother Ron (and hesitant to admit that her older twin brother's were actually quite funny.)

However close she was becoming with Ginny, however, Luna couldn't bring herself to admit to her that she had other motives for searching out whatever it was that up until recently had been hidden in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The idea now firmly in her head, Luna was beginning to realize two things—one, that wherever the stone now resided it was probably not in Hogwarts and, two, that it was probably with whoever took it, and close to the castle at that. All of these conclusions led her to the idea that had arriving with Draco at Professor Snape's door, knocking as bravely as she could.

The door slid open—it occurred to Luna that there was a weird sort of elegance about Snape, even in the way he opened doors—and he looked down his nose at her.

"Can I help you with something, Miss Lovegood?"

"Yes, sir. I wanted to know if it was too late to participate in the dueling championships…the ones in Hogsmeade."

He raised an eyebrow. "You withdrew yourself from the competition months ago, Miss Lovegood. What has suddenly made you change your mind?"

"Well…"

"It was me, sir," said Draco. He stood up straight, raising his chin almost defiantly. "I told her she shouldn't have quit just because I got turned into rock like that…"

"Hmmph." It was obvious that Snape didn't quite buy that argument—and it didn't help that the real reason for Luna's dismissal was in muggle London, miles away. "Very well. But you had best be prepared, the competition is in two weeks. I hope you do not disappoint the school, young lady."

She nodded—and later, when she was out of sight and earshot, she released a deep breath.

"Your competition is in the morning," said Draco. "You know if you lose that you'll have to return here right away."

"And if I don't I'll get a chance to explore the village," she said with a firm nod. "So I'll just have to win."

For the next two weeks she and Draco, in addition to preparing for their swiftly approaching finals, began spending their spare time in the empty wing of Ravenclaw tower that Flitwick gladly provided for the purpose, though they would have been more greatful for a place where they could go unseen—they were only three days into the training before having a small group of discerning Ravenclaw eyes watching them became a little distracting.

It was early on a Saturday morning when the day came for the competition. Apart from the small contingent enrolled in the competition were the third-years and up, as it was a Hogsmeade weekend. She walked beside Snape and Draco, who had been very grave all morning.

"You _know _you're going to get it good, don't you?" Eris had been saying earlier at breakfast. "Let's take bets…who thinks she'll come back with one eye?"

"Bet she comes back turned into a toad!" howled Strode, taking Eris's lead.

Luna serenely ignored this, picking at her porridge as she thought about the task in front of her.

She wasn't so much worried about the competition—it seemed like an easy enough win, though she wasn't ruling out any possibilities. But getting away from Snape was going to be a problem.

Her predictions came true—she engaged three adversaries, including a girl from the French school Beauxbatons, and disarmed them all within a matter of minutes. Only the French girl seemed at all insulted—the others were quite impressed to have been bested by none other than the famous girl-who-lived. But from the moment she stepped off the stage Snape was at her side, and he immediately escorted her and Draco to a room in the Three Broomsticks, warning her that she was not to leave for any reason whatsoever—when he left, she heard the door lock, first, then saw that it glowed green for the moment—a sure sign of magical enchantment.

Shaking the lock and seeing for certain it was closed, Draco sighed. "This isn't going to be easy," he said.

"It wouldn't be worth doing if it were easy," she said lightly. She was looking out the window, watching the people passing by below.

"There's a fireplace," said Draco. "If we had any floo powder…"

"Floo powder?" Luna turned around. "What's that?"

"Oh, I forget," said Draco. "It's just a way to travel. Gets you from any fireplace to another, s'long as it's in the network."

"Mm," said Luna, frowning.

"We could try and undo the lock…"

But Luna was no longer listening. She had pulled open the window and, without looking back, she stepped out onto the short terrace that ran outside. The room she was in was on the third floor of the inn and ground was quite a long way down. "Draco, if I die or something would you please apologize to Harry for me?" she said.

"Why?"

"I borrowed his invisibility cloak last time we were in Gryffindor tower." So saying, she pulled a long silky piece of fabric out from inside her cloak and put it over herself, disappearing.

"Bloody hell, borrowed…" Draco mumbled. "Luna, what—"

He heard a faint crash. Rushing to the window he looked down and saw that on the second floor balcony below several chairs had suddenly thrown themselves around. Three witches ran over to investigate, but Draco was certain he saw a strand of blond hair appear in midair for just a moment, headed toward the ground.

Luna, hidden beneath the invisibility cloak, couldn't help but feel that she was betraying her friends a little with the way she'd been acting. But then again, she was desperate. It was her greatest fear that she would get word her uncle had passed away and she could no longer do anything about it—magic had only found ways to keep one from dying, not bring back those who had already passed.

Dodging her way through the crowd she found her way to the often talked about and little visited part of Hogsmeade—an old dilapidated village filled with rundown little houses. She imagined that at least a handful of them had to be abandoned—it was the perfect place to hide, if somebody was in fact hiding around there.

It took her over an hour of searching before she finally found something that looked promising.

The hut was small, the gray paint peeling away from it's walls and the stairs leading to the front door so broken there was no way to use them. Luna picked her way up them and pushed the front door open enough to peek inside and be certain that nobody was there.

When she was sure that it was empty she opened it wider and slipped in, closing in behind her. The room was as dingy and desolate as the exterior of the building—she wondered just how long it had been empty. Even the Shrieking Shack, reported home of a ghost, wasn't nearly as depressing to look at.

Everything was covered in a layer of dust thick enough to frost a cake—she began to move forward, pausing when something caught her eye.

There were tracks on the ground, forming a neat trail between the front door and another room off to the side. Luna felt her heart beat faster—somebody had been there recently.

She crept along, making sure to keep to the clean trail so that nobody could see that she had been there. The door was ajar—she slid it open and peered in. There was nothing inside but an old bureau on which sat a mirror and a small, leatherbound notebook. She picked up the mirror first, finding nothing interesting about it. Then, wondering if perhaps she might find something of importance written in the journal, she opened it to the first page.

It was blank.

She puzzled over this for only a moment, then heard movement at the front door. She put the journal back where she'd found it and backed away as the door opened and a tall man in a turban walked in, stumbling to the bureau. He seemed ill—or in pain. Luna recognized him immediately as the wanted man, Quirinus Quirrel.

"I can't…any longer. Too…weak," he muttered.

"_You are weak," _a voice hissed. Luna thought at first that Quirrel must be talking to himself. But then a second thought came over her—that the second voice was not Quirrel at all, but some entity speaking _for _him.

"I am…but a man…" he gasped. His skin was translucent gray, to the point that Luna thought she could see the veins beneath.

"_Let me see…show me your face…"_

Quirrel struggled to stand upright. Then, taking the smaller mirror and holding it before his face he turned, unwrapping the turban. It was in the larger bureau mirror that Luna saw the face—not Quirrel's but another, that seemed implanted in the back of the other man's skull. Luna tried her hardest not to gasp—whatever it was it was horrible, terrible..

And somewhere in the deepest recesses of her mind, she was certain she had seen it before.

"_I cannot believe you are unable to retrieve it from that silly woman," _the voice hissed.

"She has kept it…from..me…" he rasped.

"_Yes…clever scheme of the witch…" _it said. _"I would never have thought that vacant fool would turn my own creation against me…to turn herself to stone…"_

Luna couldn't help it then, and both man and monster heard her gasp. The hissing voice gave the man an order. He groped out in the shadows, and realizing that if he kept moving her way he was sure to find her she made a run for it.

She hit the bureau hard as she ran under his arms. The journal slid down onto the floor and, without really thinking of what she was doing, Luna picked it up and slid it into her robes. She took off at a run, not stopping until she was back in with the crowd. She slipped out of the invisibility cloak, and walked into the Three Broomsticks and right into Snape.

"Miss Lovegood," he said angrily. His nostrils flaring—she supposed it meant he was angry.

"Sorry. I had heard there were crumpled-horn snorcacks in the mountains north of here," she said breathlessly.

Snape stared at her for a moment. "Excuse me, Miss Lovegood? What is this nonsense?"

"Not nonsense at all. I'm pretty certain I saw one. Although he does look rather like a Scottish Bandysnatch…"

It seemed as if trying to understand what she was saying was making Snape even more agitated, which was of course just what Luna had intended.

"Go on up to your room," he said, "and this time remain there, and do go looking for snorcacks or pixies or nargles…or whatever it is that strikes your fancy."

Although she was certain that now Snape would think she was absolutely insane, it didn't matter much to Luna. She had gotten precisely what she wanted, and perhaps even more than that. She headed up to Draco, telling him everything that had happened and presented the journal, which didn't impress him much—it was, after all, blank.

What did interest him was the idea that Professor Robin had purposefully let herself be turned to stone by the basilisk, to hide whatever it was she knew about the Philosopher's Stone.

"If that's true," he said, "then she has it or knows where it is."

Luna shook her head. "I think she did, before she got turned to stone. But then something went wrong with her plan…I don't know what."

Draco snorted. "Sounds to me like Dumbledore should have left the blasted thing in Gringott's where it belongs…doesn't make sense that he'd bring it here…"

And then the two of them slowly looked up at one another.

"Right around the time he would have brought it to Hogwarts, there was a break-in," said Draco. "So he wouldn't want it there…"

"But somebody almost got it from here…Professor Quirrel."

"So he's got it hidden someplace else. Then what was all that in the third-floor corridor?"

Draco's eyes widened. "A trap. Not for everybody…just for Quirrel, and the thing in his head. Robin went looking for the stone and figured it out…figured out something that you missed when you went down there."

"But why would she get it and not me?" said Luna, starting to get a bit frustrated.

"Because maybe she had something that you didn't," said Draco. "Every time you saw her she was putting something in her pocket, or taking something out, right?"

"That doesn't make sense," said Luna, "She was frozen one of the times I saw the person in the corridor."

"And what if she wasn't frozen?" said Draco. "There haven't been any more basilisk attacks since that night, right? The legend about the Chamber of Secrets is that it attacks muggle-borns and half-bloods—that it's trying to rid the castle of them. But the group it chose that night didn't have a single one person that wasn't pureblood in it."

"So the attack wasn't random?" said Luna.

Draco shook his head. "It was," he said. "It was ordered to attack…maybe kill…the first person it saw. So it went right down the hall and found us, then…well, who knows where it went after that?"

"Back to the Chamber to sleep until its master needs it again," said Luna.

"So she wasn't frozen after all. She wanted everybody to think that—Dumbledore, Snape, Quirrel, head-guy, everyone—until she could get it all sorted out. Only head-guy figured it out, and now she can't pretend anymore…"

"Then what do we do?" said Luna. "If we let her know what we know then we'll never get the stone. If Quirrel and weird head-guy get to her first…"

"Then she's dead, and head-guy gets the stone."

Luna shivered. "Draco?" she whispered. "I think I know who head-guy is…"

Draco nodded. "So do I. We can't let him get that stone. Even if we have to destroy it or something, Luna. I hope you realize that."

Luna bowed her head. "I know," she said weakly. "But we don't tell Dumbledore until…until we have no other choice."

She reached out her hand. After a long moment he took it and they shook.


	16. Into the Chamber

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I hope you like this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Sixteen: Into the Chamber**

End of term exams were coming quicker than anybody could have anticipated. Luna was forced to put her search for the Philosopher's Stone to the side—as much as she wanted it, she realized that getting kicked out of Hogwarts for failing her classes would make her goal quite a bit more difficult to accomplish.

"You look tired, Luna." This was said by Mai Chang, or rather whispered, as Luna barreled through the last few inches of her essay.

"I just have a lot to do," she said wearily.

For two weeks Luna and Draco, apart from attending to their studies, watched Professor Robin and planned for everything that could possibly happen. Luna was waiting for the perfect opportunity, though she wasn't sure what that would be. It was very rare that they actually came across her in the castle without looking for her—she was keeping to herself, and looking more and more skittish as the days went on.

The only clue that Luna actually had was the small black journal, and though it appeared blank she was beginning to suspect that it held more than met the idea.

Finishing with her essay, and saying goodbye to Mai, Luna gathered together her things and went to her bedroom. She closed the curtains around her and pulled out the journal and a quill, opening it to the first page. She thought for a long moment, and then scribbled something down on the page.

_I am Luna Lovegood, and I wish to know what secrets this journal contains._

A long moment passed—the ink stayed on the page for a moment, and then seemed to seep into the paper until it disappeared. After a long paused fresh words appeared on the page.

_Hello, Luna. I have many secrets. You may call me Tom._

She felt her heart jump. Filling her quill with ink, she wrote a hasty response.

_I want to know what you were doing with Quirrel and the head-man, _she wrote.

There was a longer pause this time, as if the person writing her back was trying to figure out what to say.

_I was taken, _it said finally. _They also wanted my secrets…but they were untrustworthy._

_And Professor Robin, too? _She wrote.

_She was protecting my secret for herself, _it said. _But I would not tell her the truth…_

The truth? Luna felt a prickle of unease creep down her spine.

_Do you know where the Philosopher's Stone is? _She asked.

At least a minute or two passed—Luna almost thought the book had stopped working. Then one last word appeared across the page.

_Yes._

She closed the journal. Her intuition was telling her that something was wrong—after all, if the head-man had the journal then why should she believe anything it said?

But even if it was trying to hurt her, to harm her, wasn't there usually a grain of truth in any lie? Luna wondered if perhaps by playing along with the others she wouldn't be able to get her hands on the stone herself, and save her uncle.

She took a deep breath, and pulled the journal open again.

_I want to know where the stone is. _

It took a long moment for the journal to write back.

_Look in the Chamber of Secrets, _it said.

It began to give her detailed instructions—Luna committed them to memory, unwilling to risk writing them down. When she was finished she set the journal aside and, going to find Draco in the common room, pulled him aside.

"I don't trust whatever it is that told you that," said Draco firmly.

Luna shook her head. "Neither do I. But there has to be something to it, right? If I'm really careful I should be able to figure something out."

"We're going to need help," said Draco finally. "If Harry's forgiven you yet for swiping his cloak, tell him we think we know where the real stone is."

She nodded, and charmed a quick note to be sent up to Gryffindor tower. A reply came not an hour late—_Meet me at ten o'clock. Bring my cloak._

Finishing up whatever homework she had left before her trip into the unknown, it was around nine o'clock when Luna returned to her room to dump out the contents of her book bag and replace it with everything she could possibly think of that would help her if something went wrong—a muggle first aid kit that had gone long-forgotten until now, put there by Uncle Henry, a small packet of chocolate frogs and a flask of pumpkin juice (just in case she got stuck somewhere), a quill and paper, a copy of _Hogwarts: A History, _and the journal.

She and Draco hid together under the cloak as they made their way toward Gryffindor tower. Harry was standing right outside the portrait of the Fat Lady. Luna touched his arm and pulled him with her until they were out of sight of the door—then he ducked back under the cloak with them.

"I can't believe you took it!" he hissed.

"I needed it. Sorry." She saw the look he was giving her and shrugged—he wouldn't be mad for too long.

"Let's get this over with," said Draco. "We're probably all going to get killed or eaten or at the very least turned to stone, so let's just do it."

"Don't be so negative," said Luna. "There's only a chance we might die."

The Chamber was supposed to be located underneath the second-floor girls' bathroom. It was little used, and for very good reason. It's singular occupant was the ghost of a young girl who had died many years earlier.

Making sure that the bathroom was empty, the three of them slipped inside. Luna raised her fingers to her lips for the boys to be quiet. They could hear something rattling in the inside of one of the stalls. Luna pulled the cloak off of herself and knocked on the door, stepping back as it was flung open and a silvery specter appeared.

"Who's bothering my immortal torment?" the ghost demanded, before looking down. "Ooh! It's you, the famous girl!"

"Hello Myrtle," said Luna conversationally. "Might I ask you something? About your death?"

"My _death?" _said Myrtle. It was apparent from the excited look on her face that the subject was one she found very interesting. Luna listened to the ghost's long, drawn-out story, gathering a few key facts from it. There had been a series of attacks similar to the one that had taken Draco and Robin out a long time before, which had ended in Myrtle's death.

"Do you suppose it was the basilisk?" said Draco, slipping out of the cloak.

"A _boy!"_ shrieked Myrtle.

"Yeah, I do." Harry pulled the cloak off and stuffed it inside his robes.

"It's the journal," said Luna firmly, pulling it out of her bag.

Both Harry and Draco, and she could have sworn the ghost too, turned to look at her.

"Look at the name on the front. Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"What about it?" said Harry. However, a sudden look of horror came over Draco's face.

"I don't know if you play word games when you're young, like muggles do. My uncle and aunt used to give them to me when I was bored, and I didn't have anything else to do. I'm surprised it took me so long to work out that if you rearrange these words they translate to something else. But I did."

"We need to get the hell out of here," said Draco suddenly, reaching out and grabbing Luna by the arm.

"What's going on?" said Harry and Myrtle.

"I am Lord Voldemort." The entire room went still—Harry and Draco visibly shuddered.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Look at the letters. When you unscramble them, that's what comes out." She handed Harry the journal. His eyes widened in horror as he saw the truth of what she said.

"…a coincidence?"

"No. I spoke to him. I could…feel it. As if he hated me."

"But he's dead!" said Harry defiantly.

"A part of him, maybe, but not all of him. In fact, I think we may be dealing with two different parts of Voldemort right now," said Luna. She ducked her head down, drifting off into thought.

She was sure, at last, that she had settled on a final theory about the chaos that had been following her all year long. She had been changing her mind, over and over again, about who she believed to be at fault. Quirrel (though the face in his head was more the culprit, she was sure,) Robin, and some unknown entity she had yet to find. She was only just realizing why her instinct had been pulling her in two different directions—it had been the same person all along who had been seeking out the philosopher's stone.

"I suppose," she said finally, "that Quirrel gave Robin the journal. It possessed her, told her what to do, and she ended up working for the piece of Voldemort that is inside the book. But she was able to break out of her possession. She set the basilisk loose during dinnertime because she didn't expect any of the students to be anywhere but the Great Hall. I guess she was hoping a teacher, or even Filch, would get hit by it. And she used a potion to freeze herself by day."

"So why would she keep the journal, if it possessed her?"

"What was she going to do? Let somebody find it? She kept it with her but she didn't use it anymore. And I think I know why she was visiting the Mirror, too."

"The mirror?"

"The one that gave me the fake stone," said Luna. "It shows you whatever you want the most. What if she was hoping it would show her what to do? Or who had found the Philospher's Stone so she could get Quirrel off her back?"

"That's a wild story," said Harry reluctantly.

"It makes sense," said Draco. He shook his head. "It's sick, but it makes sense."

"But then the temptation gets to be too much—maybe she thinks the journal can help her if she just keeps her senses about her. But she couldn't control it—it sent her back to Quirrel. I don't know how she managed to escape—"

"But she came back to Hogwarts, even though she's not teaching," finished Harry. "I guess it does make sense. It's just a bit far-fetched."

"But it's what happened." Luna went to the sink. "I'm going down. Harry should come with me. Draco, stay here and wait for us please."

"What? But…"

"I need somebody who thinks differently than I do. Who may see something that I don't." She turned around and looked into Draco's eyes. "And if I don't come back, you can finish what I started."

"Okay," he said finally, sounding frustrated.

"All right. Harry?" He came closer to her, and ignoring the ghost Luna leaned forward to whisper just the way that the journal had told her too. Almost immediately the tiles began to press forward, twisting and sinking until an opening just large enough for them to get through appeared.

"I'm going through first," said Harry. He crouched down and slipped inside. Luna listened as he disappeared—she didn't hear him land, which made her think he had dropped quite a while.

She waved goodbye to Draco before following him through. She was sliding through the darkness, and what remained of the cobwebs that Harry had unsettled, and landed on a pile of what, with their unsettling crunch, Luna suspected to be bones. She felt a hand on hers. Harry pulled her to her feet, and the two of them looked around through the darkness.

"You realize that if the head guy you talked about and Tom Riddle are one and the same…"

"Then Quirrel and head-guy know how to get here," whispered Luna. "Yeah, I know. I wouldn't be surprised if they're already waiting for us."

"Then why are we doing this?" he asked.

"Because of this." Luna reached into her robes and pulled out the large stone she had found earlier in the year.

"The fake stone?" Harry asked.

"They're both looking for it. How do they know I don't have it?"

Harry shook his head. Luna could tell that he didn't approve, but she had made up her mind.

They went through a wide tunnel. Both Luna and Harry raised their wands as they came upon a doorway crested by a large silver serpent. "According to legend," Luna whispered, "Slytherin created this place before he left Hogwarts for good. He put the basilisk there to purge the school of the unworthy…"

"Now's not a time for a lesson, Luna," said Harry.

They both went back to being silent. They went into a large, wide chamber. There was a pale figure on the floor. Luna rushed forward. Professor Robin was sprawled out on the ground, her skin a ghastly shade of white. "Where are you, Tom?" said Luna, standing back up.

There was strange laughter—Luna could hear hands clapping as a figure came out of the shadows. "Figured it out, have you? Clever little witch."

Luna gripped her wand as tightly as she could. "You're not the one I came here to see," she said. "You're just a memory of Him."

"And memories aren't bad enough?" The boy standing before her was quite handsome, though he had an unpleasantness about him.

Luna didn't reply. She could hear Harry coming toward her, but apart from that another sound in the darkness. "The basilisk, Harry!" she called out as she finally made out the hissing. "He's coming!"

She could hear him cry out. From where she stood she could see that he had fallen—the monster was circling him. She wanted to call out advice but there just wasn't any time. Tom Riddle was closing in on her the same way that monster was on Harry. Her wand flew out of her hand suddenly, as a voice from across the room cried out.

"Enough," said Quirrel. "Do whatever you wish with the boy," he said, "let him give you life if you so desire. But the girl is mine."

The boy's eyes narrowed in agitation. Luna fell to the floor and began to reach out for her fallen wand, screaming when she felt Riddle's foot grind her knuckles into the floor. Harry must have paused—she cried out for him to leave her alone, hoping he wouldn't do something as stupid as try and save her life.

"I have the stone," she gasped as Riddle stomped down again. "I brought it for you, for a favor."

Whether it was Riddle or Quirrel she would never know, but a voice hissed out, "Favor?" and the hold on her hand lessened enough for her to pull it free.

"I want to live forever. I want to drink the elixir of life. And give it to the people I care about…my uncle Henry, even if he is just a muggle. Can you let me do that?"

"No, Luna!" Harry screamed.

Quirrel then began to laugh. "Very good…how very like us you are, Luna, though you do not yet know it…"

She got to her feet and pulled out the stone. "Here," she said, holding it on her outstretched palm.

Quirrel began to lean forward, hand moving toward hers. When he was only inches away Riddle screamed and lunged forward. She ducked backward, and with all her strength flung the stone onto the ground. It shattered into hundreds of fragments.

"Get the basilisk!" she screamed at Harry. No sooner had she said something than a strange glow came into the room. A giant red and gold bird appeared, it's song permeating the darkness.

"Fawkes?" she heard Harry call out in surprise.

Quirrel growled in anger. He reached out and grabbed her, crying out. Luna's eyes widened in shock. He was pulling away, and understanding suddenly that touching her had been the source of his sudden pain she reached out, wrapping her hands around his wrist, pushing against his face…

Her world grew darker and darker, and the last thing she heard was screaming.


	17. Epilogue

**Luna Lovegood and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Author's Note: **I hope you like this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Harry Potter series, any of the characters, or anything like that. If I did I would be very rich and probably would have better things to do with my time than write fanfiction :)!

**Chapter Seventeen: Epilogue  
**

Her eyes opened. Harry was leaning over her, shaking her shoulders. "He's gone," he said. "You did something to Quirrel. He's…"

"Yeah." Luna sat up. She didn't look over at what was left of Quirrel—besides, she was sure that Voldemort no longer resided there, nor had he died. "What happened with the basilisk?"

"Fawkes helped me beat him," said Harry. She glanced over at the pool of black ink that surrounded the journal, now pierced through with a fragment of the basilisk's fang.

Luna sighed as she pulled herself to her feet. "I know where the stone is," she said as she dusted herself off.

She hardly noticed that the both of them were bleeding—only vaguely was she aware of the fact that Harry was somehow holding the Sorting Hat in one hand, and a glittering sword in the other.

"The stone?" said Harry.

"It's hidden someplace where neither of them would think to find it," said Luna. "And where Robin would be completely unable to see it, no matter how hard she looked into the Mirror of Erised."

Harry put his arm over her shoulder. "Come on, let's go," he said. Fawkes flew toward them then, blinking his glittering eyes. Harry and Luna reached out for his tail and—with more strength than it seemed like a creature his size could manage—they were flying back through the darkness.

"So where is the stone?" asked Harry.

Here was the point that made Luna's heart fall into the pit of her stomach. "It's already been destroyed," she said. "Remember how Hagrid said the dragonette was given to him as a gift? How he wouldn't tell us who gave it to him?"

"Yeah?" Harry seemed puzzled by her through processes as they landed back in the bathroom. They were unable to continue their conversation as Draco (and not surprisingly, Ron and Ginny,) demanded to hear every detail of everything that had happened in the chamber.

Finally, getting his bearings back together, Harry continued their conversation.

"So what does the dragon thing have to do with the stone?"

"One of the most destructive forces of magic is dragon fire…like the kind that wraps a baby dragon—or dragonette—before they're hatched. I imagine that even though it wasn't a full dragon the fire in the egg was enough to destroy the stone over time. Dumbledore put the stone in the egg and gave it to Hagrid to care for. By the time the dragonette was born the stone was completely destroyed."

"An astute observation, Miss Lovegood, though perhaps your Ravenclaw intellect has gotten you into more trouble than you bargained for."

Everybody in the room had been turned toward Luna. Now everybody turned to see that Professor Dumbledore stood at the door, with Professors Snape and McGonagall behind him. Mrs. Potter was also there, a look somewhere between agitation and pride marking her face.

"Please return these students to their common rooms to await further discipline," said Professor Dumbledore, waving his hand. "With the exception of Mr. Potter and Miss Lovegood. I would like to speak to both of them…Lily, please escort them to my office."

The group hastily broke up—out of the corner of her eye Luna saw Snape take Draco by the arm and stoop down low to hear something he was saying. Fawkes had already flown away, but clutched firmly in Harry's hands were the hat and the sword, which Mrs. Potter said nothing about but eyed cautiously.

The one thing that she did say was, "Does that etching say Godric Gryffindor?"

Harry affirmed that it did and she said nothing in reply, though Luna was sure the reason she turned her head so quickly was to disguise the smile that came up.

She seated them in Dumbledore's office and left.

"How much trouble do you think we're in?" asked Harry.

Luna shrugged. If Draco were there she would have had somebody to share her disappointment with in not finding the stone. But she didn't know how to explain that what she had found out tonight would have been bearable—even ignorable—if she had been able to go home at the end of term with a way to save her uncle's life.

They were there for almost a half hour before Dumbledore finally strode in. He had a grave look on his face, though something about his eyes put Luna a little more at ease.

"So, no more of your little fibs, Miss Lovegood. I want to know exactly what happened tonight."

Between the both of them they were able to get out the story. Dumbledore spoke very little during all this time. It was only when it was finally over that he rose from his seat, making his way over and taking the sword from Harry's hand.

"I find it very interesting that this should come out of that hat," said Dumbledore, "and why it chose you rather than Miss Lovegood…perhaps because you needed it more, and perhaps not. It another world perhaps it would have shown a great faith in me, and in your house, that it and Fawkes came to you. Very curious…after all, is it not Luna whose wand contains Fawkes' feather?"

Luna looked up quickly, at the phoenix that now sat serenely in his cage.

"I assure you, there is a good reason. You are a true Gryffindor, Harry Potter, and I can see quite clearly the reason that you journeyed into the chamber tonight. Return to your house, please.'

Harry thanked the headmaster and, with a backward glance at Luna, left the room. Now alone with Dumbledore, Luna steeled herself for whatever he had to say.

"Miss Lovegood," he started slowly.

"I wanted the stone," she said. "To save my uncle. You asked me not to lie so I'm telling you right now."

"Mmm." Dumbledore peered at her from over the top of his glasses. "You are very young, Miss Lovegood. You already wish to play god…to bend the rules, save those who matter."

"To save those who deserve to be saved…sir," she said.

His eyes seemed a little sad. "You are an intelligent witch, Miss Lovegood. Not just in books and spells and charms…there is something else, there. Something that may do you more harm than you realize." He sat back, crossing her fingers. "You were right about a great many things, Miss Lovegood, apart from one. That is, the folly of an intelligent wizard such as myself."

He pulled something from his desk. "I could not destroy it, as I intended," he said, setting the stone down. "I imagine that Professor Robin was confused when it was I she saw in the mirror, though I must say I am in some way impressed that you managed to get the bait I had set out before she did. It had a trace on it, I am sure you are aware. The fact that it was destroyed tonight led me to find you after your excursion in the chamber."

Luna heard everything he said as if in a trance. "And…that is the real stone?" she asked.

Dumbledore nodded. "I am only showing you so that you know I am just. The stone will be destroyed, as planned. I am returning it to Nicholas Flamel so that he can do it himself, as is probably right."

"And Flamel will die," said Luna.

Dumbledore nodded. "He will. He and his wife are over six-hundred—I imagine he is ready."

"Then…I understand," she said. If Flamel himself would die she had no way to save her uncle.

"There is no way to prevent death, Luna," said Dumbledore. "Only to delay it. Some die sooner than they should, others by mere quirks of fate that in a different world would have allowed them more time…and that, my dear, is all any man can ask for."

"I just don't want him to die. Not yet," she said. This time real tears were filling her eyes. "I need him."

Dumbledore smiled at her. "I'm going to let you go. You will receive no punishment. Enjoy the last of the term, and when you see your aunt and uncle give them my regard."

********

The last thing that Dumbledore had said to her stuck in her mind as term roared to a close. She finished top in all of her classes, save Herbology, and before she knew it she was packing away the last of her things to board the Hogwart's Express and head home.

The trip was made with a full cart—after their adventure, Luna, Draco, Harry, Ginny, and even Ron (to a point) rarely got together without the rest of the crew.

But somehow it seemed to pass, among all of them, that while the others would see each other all summer long, Luna and Draco would be isolated from their friends.

"Send me an owl and tell me how you're doing," said Draco as they were getting off the train. She nodded at him, and making her way out of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters looked around for her aunt, who had written to say she'd taken time off work to pick her up.

What she saw instead was her uncle standing there, looking rosy and plump. She smiled broadly, and dropping everything except for Hermes she ran toward him. He scooped her up in his arms, just like he had when she was a little girl, and hugged her tight.

"Uncle!" she said with a smile. "I thought you were…"

He smiled, said nothing, and walked to her things, helping her pile them back up again. He put his hand on her shoulder, and together they walked into the bright sunshine.

"What happened?" she said finally.

"Oh, you know," he said, patting her hair. "There's no way of preventing death, Luna. Only ways to delay it for a time." He chuckled, as Luna caught a bit of Dumbledore in the phrase that rolled off his tongue. "Come on, kiddo. Let's go home."


End file.
